Somewhere To Belong
by Pizza yum
Summary: Garp and Whitebeard strike a deal and Luffy, Ace, and Sabo are sent to live with the Whitebeard Pirates for six months. The trio and crew alike do not know how to handle the situation but eventually they figure each other out and the brothers find somewhere they feel like they belong.
1. Marco, Thatch, and Captain Whitebeard

******Important Please Read!**

******This is AU characters will most likely be OOC. Ace and Sabo will be occasionally acting more like children than they do in the show because they will have adults that are willing and want to take care of them, something they have never really experienced. **

******(WARNING may contain spoilers) The time line is slightly different than it is in the series. In my story Luffy at his fruit when shortly after he turned six and then met Ace about a month later. Seven months after Luffy meets Sabo he is taken back to live with his father for about a month and then the fire happens. My story starts a few weeks after Luffy turns seven.**

******Also some events that take place right before or during the series will take place much earlier in this AU. Just be warned**

******One more thing. I do not own One Piece or anything that you may recognize.**

******Now that that's over. On with the story!**

* * *

**Ch. 1 Marco, Thatch, and Captain Whitbeard  
**

Marco couldn't believe his luck as he looked down at the three brats staring up at him.

Pops had made a deal with Garp "The Fist" and now here he was stuck babysitting the marine's three brats.

For six months.

Immediately after agreeing to help Garp the old man had called him and the rest of the commanders to his room and told them about their guests; then stated that the three brats were going to be Marco's responsibility.

As if he didn't already have enough responsibility.

And now to top it all off one of the brats is saying that he looked like a pineapple. Thatch would have a field day.

"My name is Marco."

"Your name is Marco," the blonde brat interrupted looking entirely too happy in the pirate's opinion.

"Like Marco Polo? The older brunette snickered.

"Marco?" the younger brunette asked.

"Polo!" the other two answered and all three burst out laughing.

Marco could already feel the headaches these three were going to cause him.

"Yes, I have a funny name and a head shaped like a pineapple. Can we move on?"

"Where are we moving on to, Pineapple Head?" the youngest brat questioned.

Marco could feel his eye start to twitch. He took a deep breath to calm himself. 'You cannot hurt the brats,' he told himself.

"What are your names?" he ground out attempting to be polite.

"Sabo."

"Ace."

"I'm Luffy!" the last one cheered, throwing his arms up happily.

Marco nodded his head. "Like I said earlier my name is Marco. Not pineapple head." He paused as the three snickered again. "I am the first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and ultimately I am the one who is in charge of you."

"Why are they Whitebeard Pirates?" the one who identified himself as Ace asked.

"Yeah you don't have a white beard," Luffy stated.

"He's not the captain Lu," the blond said. "He's _just_ the first division commander. According to the geezer anyway."

"Oh," the little boy said it as if all the questions in the world were answered. "So who's the captain Pineapple Head?"

Marco really wanted to hit his head against something but knew that if he did it would just make the brats laugh. He hit his head against the side of the small boat anyways.

And he was right. They did laugh.

"I like you Pineapple Head."

"I've already told you. My name is Marco. Mar. Co." He hit his head again.

He didn't even bother reacting to the laughter.

"You know he's going to keep calling you that," Ace stated smugly.

"Unless you know how to get him to stop," Sabo said.

"Oh really?"

"Yup. You'll probably be known as Pineapple Head for the rest of your life," the brunette informed seriously.

"Unless..." the blond spoke again.

"Unless?" Marco lead.

"Pineapple, Pineapple, Pineapple." Marco sent a glare to the little one that singing while rocking back and forth and picking his nose. He stopped abruptly. "I'm hungry. GIVE ME MEAT!"

"This is your chance," Ace stated.

"If you have any meat, give it to him." Sabo advised.

Marco rolled his eyes deciding to go along with them for the time being. It wouldn't hurt anything. He reached into the bag that was next to him and pulled out some dried meat and held it out.

"Wait!" the two older boys. He raised an eyebrow.

"You have to tell him not to call you Pineapple Head anymore," Sabo informed.

"Fine. Hey Luffy." The small brunette looked at him with big eyes. "I'll give you this meat if you stop calling me Pineapple Head and call me Marco."

"Why would I call you Marco?"

Okay there was something seriously wrong with this kid.

"Because that's my name," he said slowly.

"Oh. So I get the meat if I call you Marco?"

"Yes."

"Alright." The dried meat was snatched out of his hand.

"Thanks Marco." The boy said with a smile that was brighter than the sun.

"If you want Luffy to do anything you bribe him with food," Sabo said as he pulled on his top hat.

"Preferably meat if you have it," Ace added as he adjusted his own hat.

"Thanks for the tip," Marco said warily eyeing the two.

He pretty much had the little one figured out. Stupid and liked to eat. Just what he'd expect from Garp's grandson.

The other two were going to be a bit tougher. But being related to Garp it wouldn't be _that_ hard.

* * *

Thatch was leaning against the railing of the Moby Dick watching the small boat that contained the first division commander and three boys as it arrived. He found it hilarious that one of the fiercest pirates in the Grand Line had been ordered to babysit three kids and he was not going to let any opportunity to mess with his friend pass him by, grateful that it hadn't been him that Pops had chosen to watch the brats.

"Alright climb up," he heard Marco command.

Thirty seconds later a straw hat covered head popped up over the side. "Wow," the little boy said looking up.

"Hurry up Luffy," A voice called from below.

"Sorry," Luffy said climbing over the rail and falling onto the deck face first. Thatch was about to ask the kid if he was alright but he just sprang up and moved before another boy with an orange cowboy style hat jumped onto deck right where the other had been seconds ago. "Ace look at it," the boy exclaimed to the other. "It's so big!"

The other boy was looking around in amazement as well mouth open in awe.

"This is the biggest ship I've ever seen," a third boy, this one with a top hat, said. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Stop dawdling." And there was the first commander. Thatch smiled at his friend who looked highly annoyed with the three boys already.

"Oh come one Marco they just got here. Give them a chance to check things out," Thatch said ignoring the glare he got in return.

"I have too much to do today. I don't have time for them to stand around!"

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today."

"Shut up." Thatch held up his hands in a sign of surrender. "And since you're here you get to help them get settled."

Huh.

He really should have seen that coming.

"Actually I really have too much to do. I have to-"

"Don't even start."

Thatch slumped slightly. He didn't really want to have to hang out with three Marine brats that for some reason were getting special treatment. And he really wasn't looking forward to the complaining they would no doubt do. A pirate ship was much different from a Marine one. The brats weren't going to get everything that they were used to and he really didn't want to deal with their whining .

"Fine."

"You're really tall." The fourth division commander looked down at the straw hatted boy.

"You're really short," he retorted causing the boy to laugh.

"I'm Luffy. Who are you?" he cocked his head to the side cutely.

"Luffy, don't bother him," the top hatted boy said grabbing the smaller boy by the back of the shirt and dragged him away and towards where Marco was walking.

"He's fine," Thatch stated. He didn't really _mind_ talking to the kid. At least not yet.

He hadn't started whining yet.

He followed the group listening to Marco as they went. "Welcome to the Moby Dick. You are here because Pops, for some reason beyond my comprehension, decided to do a favor for you grandfather. While you are here, don't expect any special treatment. Everyone is busy and none of us have time to entertain you. You will be given a list of chores you are expected to perform every day. Anything extra you might need you will provide it for yourself."

As they walked crew members would stop and stare as the group passed. The man couldn't really blame them; it wasn't every day that they saw three kids on board of the Moby Dick let alone with two commanders. Thatch just smiled and waved as he walked passed. They made their way across the deck towards the crew quarters. It had been decided that it would be best to give the three their own room considering they were much younger than the rest of the crew.

The three brats were running around looking at anything and everything, talking excitedly to each other, completely ignoring the commanders, until Marco stopped in front of a door and swung it open revealing a tiny room with a small rickety desk and matching chair, closet, and one bed. Thatch winced at the sparse furnishings. They had tried to find two more beds but there really was only the one and no one was going to go through the trouble of getting any new furniture for them considering they'd be gone in six months anyway and the blankets and pillows they had found would be enough for them to get by. But seeing as they grew up with a famous marine for a caretaker spoiling them rotten the brats probably weren't going to be happy with what they were given.

"This is your room," Marco informed looking bored. "This is all you're going to get so don't bother complaining. Everything in this room you are expected to share so get used to it."

The smallest one wasted no time before running into the room, dropping his bag on the way, and jumping onto the bed. He was closely followed by the one with the orange hat who tackled the other boy onto the mattress.

"That's fine." The last boy said. "We're used to sharing."

"Wow look Sabo we have a bed," the little one cried happily jumping again. "I haven't slept in one since I lived in Fuchsia!"

"We're not going to have one for long if you keep jumping on it," the top hat wearer rebuked.

The boy crossed his legs mid jump and landed sitting next to the older one who was running his hand across the bedding looking amazed. "Wow an actual bed. I've never slept on an actual bed before."

Thatch was stumped.

This was definitely not the reaction he was expecting.

What did he mean he never slept on a bed before?

"Then Ace gets the bed first," the little one decided.

"Good idea Luffy," the blonde one agreed.

"Don't be ridiculous. There's enough room for all of us."

Thatch looked over towards his friend to see that the man was just as baffled as he was. Weren't they the grandsons of the hero Garp "The Fist"? Shouldn't they have been doted on and given everything they ever wanted?

"Hey, look, Sabo! They have a desk so you can write," Luffy exclaimed.

The blonde smiled and ran over to inspect the rickety old table smiling.

"So," Thatch cleared his throat. "Do you like you're room?"

"It's amazing," Luffy said from where he was standing inside the closet. "It's a million times better than Dadan's country!"

Where was Dadans country?

Ace was still sitting on the bed somehow looking as if it was Christmas and his birthday all wrapped into one without smiling.

Thatch couldn't help the small smile that worked its way on his face. The brats were not at all what he was expecting. The joy they showed just from a simple room that was filled with, admittedly, some of the worse furniture on the ship had them jumping up and down with excitement. "What, you're grandpa didn't give you a bed?"

"Grandpa was never home," Luffy said looking a little sad.

"I didn't live with the old man," Ace stated plainly.

"That crazy geezer is not my Grandpa," Sabo stated looking slightly scared.

"Aren't you brothers," questioned Marco.

"Yup," all three responded at once.

"Then how is he not your-"

"That's none of your business," Ace snapped. Thatch had to consciously stop himself from shivering. He had never seen such a dark look come from such a small kid. "We're brothers and that's all you need to know about us."

"Ace," the blonde one scolded lightly.

"Alright then. You're brothers. No one was saying that you weren't." Thatch said cautiously.

"As interesting as this is," Marco interrupted. "I have work to do. I'll leave you to unpack and get settled. I'll be back to check on you later." With that the blonde man left the room.

"See ya Pineapple Head," Luffy said with a happy wave.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha!" Thatch couldn't help the laughter that burst out.

"MY NAME IS MARCO!"

"Oh yeah. Sorry I forgot!" the boy yelled.

By this point Thatch was doubled over holding his stomach not even bothering with trying to stop his laughter. The kid had spent less than a day with the first division commander and already could get under his skin. He had a feeling he was going to get along with these three. They weren't the spoiled brats everyone had been expecting and he could tell that the little one was going to be fun to have around.

"Hey Mr. Tall-Guy?"

Thatch finally was able to get control of his breathing and was now looking down at the youngest boy who looked back curiously head cocked to the side.

"Yes?"

"What's your name?"

"Thatch."

"Oh. Nice to meet you." The boy closed his eyes and smiled a smile that was too big for his face. "My name's Luffy."

"Nice to meet you too Luffy." The little boy giggled a little and looked proud of himself.

"Oh yes. How rude of us. We haven't introduced ourselves," the blonde said. "My name is Sabo. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Ace," the last boy said still looking slightly upset.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," he said with a smile. "So I hear you're going to be staying with us for a while."

"You don't have to be nice to us." The man turned his attention towards Ace. "We know nobody really want us here. Hell we don't want to be here but the old man made us come."

"Ace," the blonde caught his brother's attention and said in a sing-song voice, "Remember your lessons."

The boy scowled over at the other.

"What I mean is, thank you. It's nice to be here." The boy sounded anything but happy at the moment causing one brother to shake his head and the other to laugh.

They spent a few minutes blinking at each other not really knowing what else to say. "Well, it looks like you've got everything under control. I'll see you around," Thatch said awkwardly before moving towards the door and leaving the three boys alone.

* * *

"I still don't see what the big deal is," Ace grumbled as they followed after a frustrated looking Marco. They had been left alone for several hours to unpack their few belongings and after about thirty minutes Luffy had declared loudly that he was hungry. Ace and Sabo had instantly agreed and made some makeshift fishing poles out of their lead pipes and some rope and caught themselves a late lunch. They had lit a fire and the fish had just started to cook when Marco had stormed up and demanded to know what they were thinking.

He didn't like Luffy's simple explanation of "making lunch".

It's not like they hadn't taken precautions. They had made sure the fire wouldn't spread by making sure the deck was wet and unable to catch fire.

"He told us we're supposed to provide for ourselves," Sabo mumbled back.

"I'm hungry," Luffy whined.

Marco hadn't let them finish making their lunch and had commanded that they follow him saying that the captain wanted to see them. As he led them across deck he kept mumbling about stupid brats starting fires on deck.

As they approached the front of the ship they saw a large man sitting in a chair drinking something.

"Whoa he's huge!" Luffy exclaimed eyes wide.

"No kidding," Sabo said with the same expression.

All Ace could do was nod in agreement.

"That would be our captain," Marco informed smiling slightly. It was the first time that Ace had seen anything other than frustration or the bored sleepy expression on his face. "He is the greatest pirate to ever sail the Grand Line."

"I thought that the Gold Roger was," Luffy commented. Ace gritted his teeth and hit Luffy on the head. "Ouch."

"Shut up," the older groused. He really didn't want to hear about that man, ever.

"That hurt Ace!"

"No it didn't. Stop being such a crybaby."

"I'm not a crybaby that just hurt!"

"How?"

"Shut up both of you," Sabo hissed sending Ace a warning look to keep his mouth shut. "We're about to go meet a _Pirate Captain _and you two can't shut it!"

They both turned toward their brother and nodded, instantly shutting their mouths. Ace was slightly apprehensive. After everything that happened with Bluejam could they really trust Whitebeard?

Well, the answer to that question was no. The only people that Ace knew without a doubt he could trust were standing next to him. The brunette took a not so subtle step closer to Luffy and looked over at Sabo as the blonde made sure that he was standing on the other side of the straw hatted boy.

Marco led them so that they were standing in front of the giant man that was drinking deeply out of a Sake bottle. He didn't even pause when Marco spoke. "Hey Pops! These are the brats you wanted to see. This is Ace, Luffy, and Sabo. Brats this is Captain Whitebeard."

Luffy took a step forward and inspected the large man "I like your mustache," he said before asking, "But why do they call you Whitebeard if you don't have beard?"

The giant man slowly lowered his bottle and fixed his stare on the smallest of the boys.

Ace panicked. Really they should have been expecting something like this. It was Luffy after all, but did he really have to draw attention to himself from the strongest man in the world? Two hands shot out and pulled Luffy so that he was now standing behind his brothers. The man's attention was drawn to them.

"Gu ra ra ra." Ace and Sabo traded looks. He was laughing? They relaxed slightly as the man continued to laugh. "What a cheeky brat. So you are Garp's grandsons. Welcome to my ship."

Sabo stepped forward and bowed. Ace, remembering his lessons with Makino, also bowed and the two spoke at the same time. "Thank you for having us."

Ace wasn't surprised to see Luffy follow their lead and also bow. He was always copying them and for once Ace didn't have a problem with Luffy doing exactly what he was doing.

"You will be with us for the next six months. During that time you are to listen to Marco."

"That means no starting fires on deck," the other man stated.

"You told us that we were supposed to take care of ourselves. We were just making lunch," Ace argued.

The old man seemed to find this amusing and laughed deeply.

"Well you can eat in the dining hall like civilized people," Marco stated.

Ace was confused. So they were supposed to provide for themselves but they could eat in the dining hall? How did that make sense?

"What's with the lost looks? If you want something you have to get it yourself but we're not going to not feed you," the blond man stated looking frustrated. The old man just continued to laugh.

Ace looked at Sabo who was just smiling apologetically. He turned to Luffy who looked just as confused as he was.

"You'll have to excuse my brothers. They have been expected to provide their own meals for quiet some time, and do not know that in most situations it is customary for adults to feed the children in their care," Sabo stated.

"I'm not a child. I can feed myself," Ace said crossing his arms over his chest looking angry that anyone had said otherwise.

"Then do so," the giant man said. Marco went to protest but was cut off. "A small fire isn't going to hurt anything. They look like they are capable of containing a fire. Just remember that the galley is open to you if you should need it."

"Thank you very much," Sabo said with a smile. "We appreciate your hospitality."

Whitebeard just smiled and went back to drinking.

* * *

**So what do you think let me know :)  
**

**P.S. Looking for a beta reader who can make sure that I am staying consistent. Let me know if you're interested.**


	2. Breakfast with The Crew and Teach

**I wasn't planning on updating yet but since I had such a good response from the first chapter I thought I would go ahead and post the second. I hope you enjoy. I will probably start posting once a week after this. Most likely on Wednesdays.  
**

* * *

**Ch. 2 Breakfast with the Crew and Teach**

Ace snuggled into the covers of the bed. Despite the fact that there was enough room for all three of them on the bed Sabo and Luffy (because Sabo reminded him that it was his idea) insisted that he have the bed to himself for at least a week.

He still couldn't believe that they were actually on the same ship as _Whitebeard_. The strongest man in the world. He was considered one of the greatest pirates in history and they were here. What made it even better was that He, Sabo, and Luffy were all on the same ship together. It was like a dream come true. One that he hadn't thought would happen. Sabo and Luffy had their own dreams and they wouldn't give up and that was okay because he wouldn't give up his either. But he was going to enjoy this while it was still happening.

Even though they were on a ship surrounded by potential enemies.

Gramps had made sure that they knew that they knew that the pirates were not to be trusted.

Not that he needed that lesson after Bluejam.

It had been an interesting two weeks.

They were left alone for the most part and the only ones that seemed to bother them were the stupid Pineapple Head and that Thatch guy. Marco showed up at least once a day to "make sure you brats are still alive". Thatch seemed to actually be interested in what they were up to- even offering to get them some spices from the kitchen for their fish that they would catch every day.

The rest of the crew would usually just stare openly as they walked past.

Overall it wasn't a bad set up.

It was just a little boring not being able to hunt or run through the forest to train. In fact their training had suffered since they had left with Garp for their journey to the Grand Line. He and Sabo were able to train now in day light, some of the crew members even stopped to watch and cheer them on occasionally. Luffy would sit and whine that he wasn't allowed to practice but it was necessary until Sabo and he were able to find a way to get to train Luffy without anyone seeing.

They didn't want anyone finding out about his abilities. Gramps had made sure to pound into their heads, physically, that no one could know about Luffy's powers. The old man told Sabo and Ace, in detail, what might happen to Luffy if anyone ever discovered that he was made out of rubber. From outright killing to slavery and less savory things, Garp had spared no detail about what might happen to their little brother should anyone discover what he could do.

Luffy of course didn't understand a word of it.

Ace and Sabo had taken it upon themselves to tell him every day not to stretch in front of anyone otherwise he would be hurt and his brothers would be mad at him. It didn't stop him from wanting to train and develop his powers. Ace could tell that Luffy was getting frustrated but it was better to keep Luffy safe and a little unhappy today so that he could get stronger later.

He groaned as he sat up. He really didn't want to get up but he knew that in a half hour Luffy would be up and whining about being hungry and the longer it took to get something to eat the more annoyed he would get and eventually Luffy would probably end up through a wall or Sabo would be jumping into the ocean to save him. Ace really wanted to avoid that today. He got up, stretched, and grabbed his pipe and a rope for his makeshift fishing pole.

He was really getting tired of fish, but what else were they going to eat? There was nothing else. Sure Marco had told them to go the galley when they were hungry but Ace didn't want them relying on anyone for anything. He yawned as he sat on the railing and waiting for his first catch of the day.

"You're not going to catch anything," a voice informed. He looked around to see Thatch leaning against the wall.

"What do you know?" He rolled his eyes and looked back towards the ocean.

"Not much." The man shrugged. "But there were some navigators talking about a weird current and there not being any fish in the area and blah blah blah."

"A-are you serious?"

"Yup."

"For how long?"

The man just shrugged again.

What were they going to do? Luffy and Sabo were going to be up soon and there was going to be no food for the foreseeable future.

"No need to look so sad. It's not like you're going to starve."

"We can take care of ourselves," Ace snapped. "I've been doing it since I can remember."

Thatch was quiet for a moment before taking a seat next to the brunette.

"Nobody is saying that you can't take care of yourself. But you need to be smart. Eating fish all the time is not healthy. You need to have a well-balanced diet."

"We'll be fine. It's only for a few months. We'll survive."

"You know there is more to life than just surviving right?"

Ace turned towards him, confusion written all over his face. "We're alive. What more is there?"

The boy watched as the man next to him grinned. "Ever hear of a thing called fun?"

Ace glared at him. "Of course I have. I have fun all the time." He did have fun when he and his brothers were up in their tree house pretending to be pirate captains sailing the ocean and enjoying their freedom.

"Really? 'Cause you could have fooled me."

"You don't know the first thing about me."

There was another moment of silence before the man chuckled. "You're right. So how about you and I be friends? We're going to be on the boat together for a while after all."

Ace couldn't help but stare up at the tall man for a while before turning back to the ocean, slowly wrapping the rope around his pipe. Having a friend would be nice. Thatch was nice to him now. But if he knew who Ace really was he would hate him just like everyone else; he would throw insults and talk about how he should have never been born and tell him he didn't deserve to live. Just like everyone else.

Everyone but Sabo and Luffy.

Thatch would turn his back on him in an instant if he knew that demon's blood ran through his veins. After all, Whitebeard and Roger were enemies, so why wouldn't anyone on the crew want him to die.

"Hey, come on. It's not _that_ complicated. We can be friends. It's easy. I'll show you and your brothers the galley, we'll all eat together and then plan how we can make Marco's day… more interesting."

Ace didn't respond.

"Come on it'll be fun. You won't have to spend all day trying to catch something to eat and then cooking it." Thatch paused. "The food is really good," he offered lamely.

"Ace?"

The boy turned to see his blonde brother sending the pirate a confused look and then asking Ace if he was okay without using words.

"Good morning," he greeted the other boy.

"What are you doing up? Usually I'm the first one awake."

Sabo sat on the railing next to Ace, tying the rope on the end of his own pipe.

"I didn't want to hear Luffy whine so I thought I would try to get breakfast before he woke up but he," Ace gestured towards the man sitting on his other side, "says that there shouldn't be any fish in the area that we can catch today."

The blonde sat contemplating this. "Well I guess we'll just have to go hungry for today. Luffy is going to be disappointed." After a few seconds he added, "And annoying."

"What is wrong with you kids," the pirate exclaimed. "We, no_, I personally_ will not let you starve. If you starve then it's because there is no food left on this ship. Now once the little bouncy one is up we're all going to go to the galley and get some food."

"We don't need anyone's charity," Sabo stated coldly. Ace knew that he didn't like relying on anyone any more than he did.

"Not making you starve is not charity," Thatch informed. "It's common human decency. Something I get the feeling neither one of you have really seen before."

They both glared.

"Glare all you want but once Luffy's up you'll either have to eat or deal with him whining all day."

Ace traded a look with his brother before sighing and calling out, "Luffy time to eat."

The little boy was up and standing behind the two in less than ten seconds.

"Wow that was fast," Thatch commented looking towards their now open cabin door.

"Food," he demanded.

"Well the fish aren't biting so we're going to go get something to eat in the galley," Ace informed hopping down from the railing and landing by Luffy.

"Food," he cheered throwing his arms in the air.

Ace rolled his eyes and he and Sabo quickly stashed their pipes in their room and followed Thatch across the deck.

When they arrived they found a large room filled with picnic tables. Men were gathered around all the tables, talking and laughing as the shoved food into their mouths.

Ace looked at the scene with confusion. There was no fight for food. Everyone was just eating what was in front of them and seemed satisfied. But where was the food coming from? How much was left? Had they already fought over the food and the victors were enjoying the spoils? Would they even have to fight for their right to eat like they would at Dadan's?

"This way boys," Thatch called picking up four plates handing one to each of them and keeping one for himself. "Now, I don't know what you're used to but in the galley you line up, hold out your plate when you see something that looks good and then one of the cooks will serve you. You get one serving of four different things. It's a lot of food so try not to take more than you can eat. We don't waste food on this ship."

Ace and Sabo looked at each other and shrugged before walking towards the line of chefs and held out their plates. Food was food. They would eat what they could get and be happy about it.

"I can only get four things?" Luffy questioned looking distressed.

"That's right," Thatch answered. "Don't worry. It should be more than enough for you."

"But _everything_ looks so good."

"Don't complain Luffy," Sabo chided. "They are kind enough to feed us. You should get what you get and be grateful."

Ace nodded in agreement before taking his plate back from the chef- it now had a large helping of eggs, a couple of pancakes, a banana, and some hash browns. He licked his lips. He had only had pancakes and hash browns once thanks to Makino and he was looking forward to having both again. "Thank you," he said with a small bow, remembering his lessons.

The cook blinked and smiled. "You're welcome."

A similar exchange happened between Sabo and another cook.

"Can I have all meat?" Ace heard Luffy ask and he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"No, you need something besides meat," Sabo stated. He then told Luffy what he could eat.

The cook dutifully dished it out. "Thank you," Luffy said with his famous grin as he took the plate back.

Thatch took his own food before leading them towards a mostly empty table.

"Marco," the man greeted as he slid on to the bench next to the blonde.

"What do you want," the first division commander asked.

"What makes you think I want something?"

"Don't you?"

"Well not anymore," he pouted.

Ace placed his food on the table before climbing onto the bench opposite of Thatch. He took Luffy's plate from him and firmly sat it down before his little brother had a chance to spill it.

Marco blinked at them. "No fish today," he asked.

"No," Ace answered bitterly.

"That's too bad." The man was too sarcastic for Aces liking and he was about to tell him but he was cut off.

"Hi Pineapple Head," Luffy greeted loudly causing the tables around them to all howl with laughter.

"My name is Marco," he said with a sigh.

"Right."

"Are you ever going to get it right?"

"Get what right," Luffy asked cocking his head to the side.

"I'll take that as a no." He sighed again before looking over at Ace and Sabo. "So what have you all been up to for the past week?"

"Why even ask? You see us every day," Ace stated taking a bite of hash browns.

"Just trying to make conversation unlike you and your brothers."

Ace looked to one side and saw Luffy was too busy inhaling his food to talk, probably afraid someone was going to take it. To be fair someone might. Sabo was no longer paying attention to the conversation. He was looking off to the side while absent mindedly bringing food into your mouth.

Ace smirked. This was the perfect opportunity. He slowly inched his fork closer and closer to the blonde's plate and stabbing a sausage and quickly shoved it into his mouth.

"Don't you have enough?"

Ace silently cursed Marco as Sabo's head snapped to look at him.

"What did you take?"

Ace responded by quickly shoving his pancakes in his mouth knowing that would probably be the first thing his brother would go for. "You took my sausage," Sabo accused before tackling Ace to the ground.

Ace punched his brother across the jaw who responded by kicking him in the stomach. Before he could bite Sabo like he wanted they were both picked up, himself by the back of his shirt, Sabo by the collar of his coat and held far apart from each other.

"What are you doing," Marco demanded glaring down at them.

"Ace stole my food," Sabo explained.

"You weren't paying attention which means you're food is up for grabs. You know the rules," Ace stuck his tongue out at the boy.

"Don't steal food," Marco stated shaking Ace a bit.

"Oi Luffy stop!" Sabo yelled angrily.

Ace's head shot to look at his younger brother who had already eaten half of both his and Sabo's food.

Luffy stuck his tongue out before taking Sabo's apple and taking a large bite.

"Why you!"

Sabo lifted his arms so that he slid out his coat and launched himself at the younger boy. Ace used his feet to push his way out of the pirate's grip and joined Sabo in pummeling Luffy.

None of the boys noticed the shocked look on the pirates' faces and they watched the fight. Finally having enough Marco once again grabbed Ace and Sabo, and pinned Luffy to the ground with his foot.

"WERE YOU RAISED BY WOLVES?" He screamed.

All three brothers looked at him in confusion. "There is enough food for all of you. You don't have to steal from each other." He set both Ace and Sabo back on the bench and let Luffy go. "Now, since Luffy ate half of your food I'm sure he's full. You can finish his."

"NO!" Luffy instantly wrapped an arm around his plate and pulled his plate closer quickly shoving the food into his mouth.

"Don't eat like that, you'll choke!" Thatch yelled.

"No he won't," Ace said picking at the remainder of his food. Luffy had gotten the food fair and square and there really was nothing else he could do.

He noticed a small hand sneaking towards his plate. He took his fork and stabbed it into the table glaring at Luffy. "My food," he said firmly. Luffy instantly backed off and jumped up onto the table and turning so that his back was now protecting his plate.

"Get off the table," Marco scolded.

The seven-year-old pouted before doing as he was told and sitting back on the bench. Ace made sure that his arm was now in between his plate and little brother.

"Where does it all go," he heard Thatch ask as he watched Luffy scoop food into his mouth. "He's already eaten enough for a grown man and he's still eating."

"Slow down Lu," Sabo said looking across Ace. "You're scaring people."

Luffy looked around before slowing down his pace.

"Good. Now that you're eating like civilized people, what was that all about?" Marco asked. Thatch was still watching Luffy with a look that was somewhere between awe and disgust.

"It's breakfast time," Ace said sure that would explain everything. He turned to Sabo. "What were you looking at anyway?"

The blonde head turned again looking around the room before snapping back to the pirates that were sitting across from them.

"Is that really a fishman," Thatch and Marco, both of whom seemed to tense up and looked at the boy.

"Yes," Thatch answered slowly almost defensively.

"I never thought that they actually existed. Let alone that I would actually see one," Sabo said looking over at the other table where a shark man was sitting talking to the other pirates.

"His name is Namur," Marco informed with a guarded look.

"Do you think he would talk to me," Sabo asked. It was very hard to tell for anyone that didn't know the blonde well but he was excited. "I read about them in different books. I read that they were just animals with the brains of a fish. I would love to meet one to find out what they're actually like."

"Actually like?" Thatch questioned looking interested.

"Well, if there is one thing I've learned in my life it's that you can't trust everything that you read in books, especially the one written by stuffy nobles, or are taught by them. I figure if he's on this ship then there is no way that anything I read about them could be true."

Thatch and Marco relaxed a little and were both smiling now. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind meeting you," Thatch said.

Sabo looked openly excited about the idea of talking to Namur.

"Nah, Sabo. What's a fishman?"

"I'll explain it later Lu."

"Okay."

"Commander Marco, Commander Thatch, good morning," a deep voice greeted as another man joined their table.

Ace looked up to see a rather large, hairy man with missing teeth sitting next to Luffy.

"Good morning Teach," Marco greeted with a smile.

"So these are our guests," Teach said smiling down at them.

Luffy didn't jump up and introduce himself like Ace had expected. Instead he scooted closer to his brother, getting as close as he could. Normally Ace would shove him away but he noticed that Luffy was shaking slightly and had also stopped eating when there was still food on his plate. That was not like his little brother at all.

"Lu, you okay," he asked so that no one else would hear him.

Ace watched as his brother looked between him and the large pirate next to him and then nod slightly looking nervous. He looked as if he was going to back away from his brother but Ace simply grabbed Luffy's plate and slid it so that it was back in front of the smaller boy. "Finish eating. We don't want to waste food."

Luffy picked up his fork and ate at an even slower speed. His eyes kept sliding back towards Teach, who would just smile his way. Ace made a mental note to ask Luffy what all that was about later as he took a pieces of bacon off his brother's plate. He was shocked when Luffy just watched him take it.

There was definitely something wrong.

Ace and Sabo kept up a conversation with Thatch and Marco until they were done eating. Thatch then asked Ace if he wanted to go play a prank on one of the other commanders. Ace had never really played a prank so he jumped at the chance and all thoughts of Luffy's strange behavior left his mind.

It wasn't until later that night when they were getting ready for bed that Ace remember the incident at breakfast. Sabo was sitting at the desk writing in his journal and Luffy was bunching up blankets on the ground into a nest sort of thing. He didn't realize it until that moment but Luffy had been acting strangely all day. He had kept close to either him or Sabo and had been less talkative than what they were used to.

"Hey Luffy?"

His brother looked at him, cocking his head to the side questioningly. "What happened at breakfast?"

Sabo paused in writing to look over at Luffy to.

"What do you mean?"

"When that Teach guy sat next to you, you started acting weird," Ace said.

Luffy scrunched up his face as if he were thinking about something really hard. "You mean the beard guy?"

"Yeah him," Sabo confirmed.

Luffy shivered. "I don't like him."

Sabo and Ace traded looks of surprise. Luffy had only said that he didn't like bandits and after what happened to him before they met they couldn't really blame him for that. But he had only just met Teach and he said he didn't like him. That was unheard of. Luffy liked everyone. Luffy had liked him and Sabo even when they said they were going to kill him.

Instead of saying anything Ace gathered a few of the blankets from the floor and Luffy's pillow and threw them onto the bed. The little boy took the hint and climbed in and smiled when Ace settled in next to him. His smile grew as Sabo also joined them. It was a bit of a tight fit now but that was okay because Ace didn't mind sharing with his brothers.

"Why don't you like him," Ace asked quietly once they were all in bed and settled with Luffy in the middle.

Luffy scrunched up his face as if he were trying to think of the right words. He finally settled on, "He didn't feel right."

"What do you mean?" Sabo asked.

"I don't know. He just… didn't feel right."

* * *

**Let me know what you think **


	3. Sabo and Namur

**Ch. 3 Sabo and Namur**

"Hey Namur. How's it going?" The Fishman glanced up to see Thatch and Marco standing in front of him both with smiles.

"What do you want?" he asked automatically. The only time Thatch looked that innocent is when he wanted something.

"Want? What makes you think we want anything," Thatch said looking slightly offended. "Is it so wrong that we just want to talk to our brother, whom we love dearly?"

Namur looked at Marco. "What does he want?"

"We just came to see if you wouldn't mind talking to one of the brats on board. He said a few days ago that he wanted to meet you," Marco stated.

"So in other words you want me to babysit."

"It's not babysitting," Thatch said matter of factly.

"Oh really?" Namur didn't believe a word he said.

"They pretty much take care of themselves," Marco said. "I was actually expecting them to be a lot more work than they have been."

"Why don't I believe you?"

"Because you're a suspicious person," Thatch said throwing an arm around the other commander. "Really you should have more faith in us. We don't want to trick you into anything. The kid just wants to talk to you."

That was unusual. There weren't very many humans that wanted to talk to him. They were all afraid that they would catch a disease or something from him. Usually his brothers would run interference for him so that he didn't have to deal with the stupidity of most humans. But here they were saying that he should go and actually chat with one.

"Why?" he questioned.

"He said that he read about Fishmen and doesn't believe a word of it," Thatch informed.

"He wants to see what Fishmen are actually like and he asked if you would mind talking to him for a while," Marco continued.

"We thought it would be a good opportunity to make sure that the kid was taught the truth instead of the messed up whatever they're teaching now days," Thatch finished.

Namur starred at them not sure what to say after that but he settled on, "No."

"What? Why not?"

"I don't want to spend time with the marine brats."

"Oh come on they're not that bad," Thatch said.

"Besides we're just asking you to have a small chat with one of them," Marco coursed.

"Why do you want me to do this so bad?"

Thatch and Marco looked at each other and shrugged. "He just looked so… excited," Marco said.

"Besides I'm trying to teach the two older ones what fun is. I think this would help," Thatch added.

Namur shot the fourth division commander a confused look. "What's in this for me," he asked with narrowed eyes.

The two smiled. "The knowledge that you made a kid happy," Marco said.

"Nope I want something better."

"I'll buy you some sake at our next stop with a town," Thatch said.

"The good stuff?"

"Of course."

"Fine. I'll do it."

* * *

When he agreed to talk to the kid Namur didn't think that they meant right then. They had immediately dragged him across the deck and towards the brats' cabin. The three boys were all leaning against the railing looking at the ocean.

"Hey guys. What are you doing," Thatch asked.

"Watching the water," the little one answered.

"Why," Marco asked.

"Why not," the one wearing an orange cowboy hat answered with a shrug.

"Nothin' better to do," the last one answered.

Marco shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Hey Sabo," Thatch got the blonde attention. "There's someone I wanted you to meet."

"Yeah?" The blonde looked away from the water looking interested. He smiled when he saw Namur which surprised the fishman. He wasn't used to that reaction when humans first met him.

"This is Namur," Marco informed.

By now they had gained the other two boys attention. "Hey he looks like a shark," the straw hatted one exclaimed.

"Hi," Namur said awkwardly not really sure what was expected of him.

"Hi my name is Sabo," the blonde introduced. "These are my brothers Ace and Luffy." The other two waved when they were introduced.

"I was told one of you wanted to talk to me."

"That would be me. I've always wanted to meet a fishman ever sense I read about you guys in one of my books. Is it true that there's an island at the bottom of the ocean where you all live?"

"Yeah. It's actually a popular tourist spot for pirates going to the New World."

"Hey Luffy, Ace you want to play a game," Thatch asked getting the other boys attention.

"No thanks we should probably try to catch our dinner," Ace said.

"A game? What kind of game? I wanna play!"

"Calm down Lu. Let him have a chance to talk," the older brunette said with a sigh.

"What game do you want to play," Thatch asked leading the two boys away despite the fact that Ace was complaining that he didn't want to play.

"Well I have work to do," Marco said before turning around to go back to his cabin leaving the fishman and the blonde boy alone.

"So what did you want to talk about," Namur asked.

Two hours later Namur was happy that Thatch and Marco were able to talk him into talking to the kid. He found that the kid was insightful, passionate, clever, open minded, and one of the most intelligent people he had ever talked to.

"You know a lot about navigation for someone your age," he commented. Somehow they had ended up on the subject and the kid knew more about the subject than most on the ship did.

"Well yeah. If I want to become a pirate when I turn seventeen then I need to know about navigation."

"You, one of the grandsons of the hero Garp "The Fist," want to be a pirate?" the idea was funny.

"Yup. The old man doesn't really approve but he was stupid enough to think that if we all lived with bandits it would make us want to be marines."

They lived with bandits? And now they were living with pirates and their grandfather wants them to be marines. What was Garp thinking?

"How does that make any sense?"

The boy chuckled. "I can't tell you how much time I have wasted trying to figure that out."

"I have to ask, why do you want to be a pirate?"

"Why did you want to be one?"

Namur didn't even have to think about it. He had wanted to be a pirate because he was an outcast everywhere else. Being with Pops and the rest of the crew he was accepted for the first time. Maybe Sabo's reasons were similar to his own.

"We just want to be free."

The pirate looked down at the boy and was shocked to see the amount of pain and yearning he saw in his eyes. This kid had been through some terrible things and knew what it was like to be trapped. Whether it was figuratively or literally Namur wasn't sure if he wanted to know. The kid was too young to have experienced that kind of pain.

"And being a pirate would make you free?"

"Of course. Being a pirate means that you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself. You can live the way that you want and do anything you want whenever you want. Being a pirate is freedom."

Namur smiled. "So if Garp doesn't want you to be pirates why put you on one of history's most famous pirates' ship."

"Honestly I wish I knew. He just showed up one day picked us all up and said that we were leaving. Before we knew what was happening we were on a marine ship and then a few weeks later we were here. I'm really surprised he put us on a pirate ship but he probably has some stupid reason that only makes sense to him."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

* * *

Luffy frowned at the wall. He had been having a fun morning. He had gotten to wake up both Ace and Sabo for once and did so by jumping on them. They had both yelled at him, but their faces were funny when they woke up, so that was okay. After that they had gotten dressed and went to the galley for food, something they had been doing more and more. Sabo had been able to talk one of the cooks into giving them all an extra helping of bacon and they sat down and started stealing from each other like usual.

Marco would get mad if he caught them but that just meant they had to be sneaky.

But then Thatch had come.

He had smiled asked them all how they were doing and then started talking to Ace about something that they wouldn't tell Luffy about because Ace said he would tell everyone.

No he wouldn't.

Then the shark guy came and started talking to Sabo.

At least Thatch had been nice enough to say hi to him before he and Ace started talking. The shark guy just started talking to Sabo and before he knew it Luffy was sitting in his room all by himself with orders not to leave the room unless he had to.

Stupid Ace.

Stupid Sabo.

He didn't have to listen to them. They weren't in charge of him.

With a new found resolve Luffy stood up and walked over to the door and opened it widely before marching out.

Ha. That would show them.

He sat down in front of the door arms crossed and waited for his brothers' return, hoping that they wouldn't be too mad at him for leaving the room.

He watched as various pirates would walk by and smile at him. Some waved as they passed and some nodded. He would return their greetings but spent most of the day looking at the ocean.

"Luffy what are you doing outside," Ace asked as he and Thatch joined him. His brother was glaring slightly.

"I got bored," Luffy responded truthfully with a shrug.

"Oh, well next time you need to stay in the room. How about we go get some lunch?"

Ace wasn't mad?

Luffy jumped up and followed his brother and the tall pirate both of whom were talking really fast and low. He wondered what they were talking about but was soon distracted by all the types of meat that he had to choose from for lunch.

After all it wasn't that big of a deal if Ace and Sabo spent some time with their new friends. Luffy didn't mind being by himself for a little while.

Sort of.

* * *

**Thank you for reading.  
**

**Let me know what you think :)  
**


	4. First Island Adventure

**Oh my gosh. **

**I am shocked at how many people have responded to this story. I am really happy that everyone seems to be enjoying it so far. I just hope that you all continue to like it. I've never had this many people following one of my stories it makes me kind of nervous. **

**Oh well. **

**Thank you to everyone that reviewed, favorited, and is now following :) Sorry I couldn't respond to everyone's reviews. I got really busy and ran out of time. I will try my best to respond to those who review. Now on with the show.**

* * *

**Ch. 4 First Island Adventure **

Luffy sat on the railing of the ship swinging his feet back and forth watching as the island in the distance grew closer. He was really excited to have an adventure. Shanks and his crew used to tell him that there was an adventure on every island you visited. He just hoped that Ace and Sabo would go with him. They had both been busy lately.

Sabo and Shark Guy seemed to have a lot in common, or at least they liked to talk a lot.

It was boring.

Thatch would come almost every day and invite them to do something with him. Luffy would occasionally join in but it was obvious that the man liked spending time with Ace more than Luffy and he didn't want to get in the way of anyone's fun. When Luffy said he didn't want to play them, the man would usually drag Ace off to pull some prank on someone leaving Luffy alone with the command to stay in the cabin.

He hated being alone.

Luffy shook his head to shake away the sad thoughts.

He was happy that Ace and Sabo had friends. He just wished that they would ask him to play with them sometimes without the grownups. The only times he had seen his big brothers this week was when it was time to eat and bed time. His brothers hadn't even spent time with him fishing. They now spent most of their meals eating in the galley which was fun, there was lots of good food and the people were interesting, but they were all really busy during the day and none of them really had time to talk to Luffy.

He watched the horizon for another hour as the island grew closer and closer before the ship docked. He hopped off the railing and ran to the front of the ship where he finally found Thatch and Ace talking.

"Ace!" he called. "Can we go explore the island? It will be a fun adventure." He smiled at his big brother.

"Didn't I tell you to stay in the room?" Ace demanded before sighing. "We were just looking for you. Thatch and Namur are going to go with us. We just need to wait for him and Sabo."

Luffy felt his heart sink knowing that the pirates were going to come with them. He was really hoping to spend some time with his brothers. "Oh okay."

"Ace! Oh good you found him," Sabo called before coming to stand with his brothers smiling down at Luffy. "You ready to go?"

Luffy nodded as Ace threw up a fist and yelled "Yeah! Let's go!"

He smiled. It was nice to see Ace so excited.

"Are you alright Luffy?" Sabo asked looking concerned.

He blinked up at his brother. "Yeah I'm good," he smiled.

"Then let's go," Ace said grabbing Sabo and Luffy by the arms and dragged them off the ship with Thatch and Shark Guy following close behind.

"Oi! Thatch! Wait up!" a voice called.

Luffy looked behind them to see Pineapple Head coming their way. "Mind if I join you?" he asked looking toward the other adults.

"The more the merrier," Thatch said. "Right?"

"I guess he can come," Sabo said looking disinterested.

"As long as he doesn't kill the fun," Ace added.

Pineapple Head looked offended. "I do not kill the fun!"

"Yes you do," Sabo and Ace answered at once.

Luffy laughed.

"You think that's funny do you?" Pineapple Head asked glaring at him.

"Yup," the boy chirped cheering up because he was with his brothers, even if the grownups did have to come with them it would still be fun.

Pineapple Head sighed. "Well I guess I'll just have to change your minds then won't I?"

"Like you could," Ace said crossing his arms.

"You're all about work. Therefore you don't know how to have fun," Sabo stated.

"Just because I'm responsible doesn't mean I don't know how to have fun," he stated as the five started walking leaving Luffy behind.

He frowned before running after them.

Great they were forgetting about him again.

"You guys should stay close," Thatch called out to Ace and Sabo about an hour after they left the ship. The two boys were a little ahead of the rest of the group and were looking around.

"We'll be fine. This place kind of feels like home doesn't it Sabo," Ace asked loudly so that the pirates could hear. The island had a massive forest on it that was filled with familiar bugs and animals.

Luffy hoped that there were no wolves on this island. Or monkeys. He was tired of monkeys. They were really hard to beat. And wolves were hard to outrun.

He didn't bother telling anyone this. It's not like they cared anyway. The adults just wanted to talk to Ace and Sabo and his brothers were more interested in exploring than they were in spending time with him.

Luffy looked off into the trees and saw something shiny. Maybe it was gold. He turned to tell the others but they were already too far for him to call after them.

Oh well.

He looked back towards the trees before smiling to himself. He was going to have an adventure and see what that shiny thing was. Maybe it would be gold.

He took off running to see what the shiny thing was. Unfortunately it wasn't gold. It was just a shiny whistle. He thought it was interesting so he picked it up and put it in his pocket before looking around to see where he was. It was just the forest still with nothing interesting but he could hear a river somewhere ahead of him. He let himself smile before making his way towards the rushing water. There was always something interesting next to a river.

* * *

Sabo was having fun. It had been nearly two months since they had been forced to leave home and he was enjoying running around the forest with his brothers and their pirate friends.

He felt himself smile. He couldn't remember the last time he was this happy. He had his brothers safe and sound and they had made new friends. Namur was really cool to hang out with. He had lots of interesting things to talk about and he was even teaching him about fishman karate he said that he would even try to adapt it a bit so that Sabo could learn a little. Thatch was a lot of fun to hang out with and was teaching him and Ace how to pull the perfect prank.

Marco was alright.

He was just too serious sometimes.

Sabo paused in walking feeling like something was missing. He looked around not quite able to place what was wrong. He look towards Ace who was looking around with a confused look on his face.

"Something wrong," Namur asked.

"Yes," Ace answered automatically.

"Something's missing," Sabo added looking behind them to see Marco, Thatch, and Namur all looking at them. Wait. It was just the three pirates. Then where was- It was then that horror struck him. How could he have not noticed it before!

"What's missing," Marco asked.

"LUFFY!" Ace yelled before he could answer.

"LUFFY WHERE ARE YOU?!" Sabo screamed feeling panic rise. They were on a strange island in the _Grand Line_ and Luffy was missing. Not thinking he took off running in the direction they had just come from Ace close behind him.

"Hey wait," he heard Thatch and the others call after them.

"LUFFY!" Sabo didn't care about them right now he just had one thing on his mind.

"AHHHH!"

Sabo felt his heart stop.

No no no no no. He changed direction to go towards where he was sure the scream was coming from. The last time they had heard a scream like that, Luffy had been attacked by a wolf that he hadn't been able to outrun.

He had almost died.

They broke through the trees just in time to see a massive alligator, bigger than any of the ones they had seen before, swallow Luffy whole.

"Luffy!" Ace called.

"Did he just get eaten," Sabo heard Thatch ask in horror.

"Oh Pops is not going to be happy," Marco said.

"Not again," Sabo sighed before glaring at the creature.

"This has happened before," Namur asked shocked.

The two boys ignored the adults and instead focused all their attention on the alligator that had dared eat their little brother. They didn't have their pipes with them but it should be okay. They were stronger than the last time Luffy had been eaten.

"You stupid gator give me back my brother," Ace yelled before running in, fists flying.

Sabo joined him jumping into the air and landing on the stupid animal's head with a kick. He felt the gator start to roll and jumped off landing next to Ace.

"Wait a second," Thatch said grabbing them by the arms. "Don't take on something you can't handle."

Ace pulled his arm forcefully away. "We can handle this. That thing just ate our brother and we _will_ be getting him back."

"Luffy was swallowed whole so all we have to do is get him out before he's digested and he'll be fine," Sabo stated.

Neither boy noticed as Marco stepped in front of the other two pirates and held out an arm telling them to wait.

They launched their next attack both aiming a kick at the head. It was enough to knock the creature out. "I thought that was going to be harder," Ace said kicking it in the head for good measure.

"Y-you just took out an alligator with no weapons," Thatch said looking surprised.

"We need to figure out how to get him out," Sabo said turning to his brother ignoring the man.

"Right we don't have any knives to cut him out this time."

"Here I'll get him out," Marco said pulling out a knife.

"NO!" Ace moved in front of the alligator arms spread out. There was a chance that Marco would cut Luffy. "We'll do it!"

Ace took the knife away from the pirate with a glare. "Make sure it doesn't move," he told Sabo pointing to the alligator.

"Right."

Five minutes later Luffy crawled out, wet and dripping with the gastric juices and blood.

"You alright Lu," Sabo asked. He wanted to hug his brother but was too disgusted at the moment. For some reason this time was so much worse than the last. He briefly had to wonder why that was.

"I-I w-was so scared," he cried loudly tears running down his face increasing Sabo's desire to hug him. "I di-didn't think you, you, were going to-to g-get me out."

"What the hell were you doing by yourself," Ace demanded. "It's dangerous wander around alone."

"I-I'm sorry. A-a-ace and S-Sabo were busy and I-I-I just wan-wanted to see what the shiny thing was!"

"You wanted to see what the shiny thing was," Sabo questioned.

Luffy didn't respond except to let out another wail. "Stop crying already," Ace yelled grabbing onto his hair. Sabo was sure that he was physically having to stop himself from hitting Luffy.

The little brother sniffed a few times before clamping his lips together. It was obvious he still wanted to cry more.

"Calm down already," Sabo said. "You're okay."

"Is he alright?" Sabo jumped at the question. Somehow he had forgotten about the others with them. He turned to see their new friends looking at Luffy with concern.

This was partially their fault. If they hadn't been distracting them and making noise then Sabo would have noticed Luffy was missing a lot sooner. He and Ace would have found him and Luffy would have never been eaten.

"He's fine," Sabo said stiffly.

"Are you sure? He's still crying," Marco said looking at Luffy

"He said he's fine." Ace barked. "Now leave!"

"B-but Ace, we just want to help," Thatch said raising his hands as if to ward off Ace's anger.

"We don't need your help," Ace snapped. "We can take care of _our_ brother by ourselves. Besides this would have never happened if you weren't here! Leave!"

The three pirates looked struck.

"Namur, Thatch, you heard them. Let's go." Marco grabbed the other two and pulled them away.

Sabo watched as they left feeling slightly guilty. They looked like they genuinely wanted to help but he couldn't risk it. He couldn't risk Luffy's safety. They may have been nice but that didn't mean that they could be trusted.

Despite how gross Luffy was at the moment Sabo grabbed one of his hands and started pulling down stream. "Come on let's go find a shallow part of the river so that we can get you cleaned up."

It only took fifteen minutes to find a part of the river that was deep enough that Luffy could get clean but shallow enough where he couldn't drown. Sabo sat in the river with Luffy making sure that he got cleaned properly. This was relaxing for Luffy and fulfilled Sabo's need to hug his brother all in one. Ace stood on the bank of the river looking for any potential threats and making sure that no pirates wandered onto the scene and noticed the effect that the water had on Luffy. The last thing that they needed was someone to get suspicious and start to suspect that he had eaten a devil fruit.

Luffy's now wet cloths drying over a fire that he had built.

"Luffy, what did you mean that me and Ace were too busy," Sabo asked running his fingers through his brother's hair dragging out some of the alligator goo and rinsing his hand in the water.

"You and Ace are always with your new friends," he shrugged tiredly. "You wanted to explore with them and that's okay. I just wanted to have an adventure."

Sabo thought back over the past week. He had been with Namur a lot lately and come to think of it Ace had been with Thatch most of the time. That meant that they had left their simple minded, naive, innocent, trusting little brother alone on a pirate ship surrounded by potential enemies.

What were they thinking?

Sabo looked towards the shore to see Ace sitting with clenched fists and knew that he had similar thoughts.

They had left Luffy, who had told them that being alone was the worse than being tortured, all by himself all because they were excited to be on a pirate ship and that they had actually making friends with some of the crew.

It was inexcusable.

"I'm sorry Luffy. I didn't mean to leave you alone," Sabo said sadly. He truly was very sorry.

"Me too." They looked up to see Ace standing next them. He had at some point removed his shoes and was now standing in the water. He reached down and pulled and now clean Luffy up and helped him towards shore.

They were forced to dress him in semi-damp cloths, but that was alright- because the weather was warm, they would dry quickly and it was better than him being exposed to the elements. Luffy, of course, complained that he didn't like wearing the damp, cold cloths.

"Get over it," Ace said before kneeling down in a silent offer to carry Luffy as a silent apology for making him wear damp cloths. The little brother jumped at the chance and happily climbed onto his big brother's back. Ace made sure that he was secure before they started walking along the river back to where they came from, figuring it would be the easiest way to find the ship. "You won't have to worry about being alone anymore," the older brunette stated five minutes later. "I'm not going to hang out with Thatch anymore."

"And I'm not going to spend time with Namur."

"What? I thought they were your friends," Luffy seemed distressed.

"They are, were, but you're more important than them," Sabo stated.

"No! I like that you have friends. Ace smiles when he plays with Thatch and Sabo has fun talking to the shark guy. I-I don't mind being a-alone if Ace and Sabo are happy," he said with a heart breakingly sad smile. Sabo knew that he wasn't lying, Luffy couldn't lie to save his life, but it was obvious he was distressed about the idea of being alone.

"We'll see what happens," Sabo said with a smile of his own, hoping to cheer Luffy up just a little bit. He knew that he personally wouldn't let Luffy leave his side for a long while.

They were surprised when they reached the alligator to find three pirates cooking the meat from their kill.

"Hey," Thatch greeted turning some of the meat on the fire. "We thought you might be hungry so we decided to cook this guy up for you."

Sabo stared. Hadn't they just yelled at them to leave them alone? Why were they here?

"Didn't we tell you to leave us alone," Ace demanded coldly.

The pirate looked hurt.

"Ace. Don't," Luffy said quietly. "He's fun to play with. Don't be mad at him. It wasn't his fault I got swallowed. It was mine."

Sabo sighed. As much as he wanted to, and previously did, blame the pirates for what happened it wasn't their fault. It was his and Ace's for not paying attention. And Luffy's for wandering off.

"What Ace means is thank you for your thoughtfulness. We are starving and would love to eat some lunch. Right Ace?"

"Whatever."

He put Luffy on the ground before making his way towards the fire and sitting down, making sure he wasn't sitting next to Thatch. Luffy automatically sat next to Ace and Sabo sat on the other side of the little brother making sure to just look at the fire and not at any of the pirates. It was an awkward fifteen minutes before Marco handed them each some meat.

"Thanks Pineapple Head."

Thatch and Namur snickered.

"My name is Marco."

"Right."

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought.  
**


	5. Sick

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**Hey just a heads up I'm going out of town next week and will be gone for a couple of weeks and haven't decided if I should take my laptop with me or not so I might not be updating for the next couple of weeks. But I've already had most of the story written out before I even started posting so I'll try to update before I leave if I decide to not take my laptop with me.**

**P.S. Just so you know my medical knowledge is limited to the internet and Grey's Anatomy so sorry if anything is wrong. If you know how it should be done let me know I love learning about medical stuff.**

* * *

**Ch. 5 Sick**

Ace stared at the flames of the fire that he was currently cooking his, Sabo's and Luffy's dinner on. It had been nearly two weeks since the incident with the alligator and in that time Luffy had somehow gotten sick. It had started out with a mild fever, sore throat, and a runny nose and developed into a cough-nothing they usually couldn't handle. The only problem was the fever was still there and had gotten progressively worse over the past two days. It had gotten to the point where his little brother was beginning to hallucinate and it was scaring him. Sure they had all been sick in their lives and Luffy had been sick once before about five months ago but that had been nothing compared to this.

Sabo, their sort of doctor in the group, usually knew what to do when they were hurt and he had been able to make Luffy feel better last time he was sick but now it seemed that nothing they did worked. He wasn't eating and could barely keep anything down when he did. Sabo said it was because of the fever and that they should try to get him to drink water. Lots and lots of water. Only problem was that Luffy's stomach couldn't handle even that.

Ace turned the small fish that he had picked out for his little brother hoping that it was going to be small enough that he could eat it and keep it down but considering he had gotten progressively worse all day he doubted it. He bit his lip trying not to think of the worst case scenario. There was no way Sabo would let anything happen to Luffy.

Neither one of them would.

If they could help it.

He looked the fish over one more time and decided that they were thoroughly cooked and poured some water over the fire. He didn't want Marco to yell at him today just because he didn't put the fire out properly. In fact he was happy to say that he hadn't seen Pineapple Head all day and that every pirate he ran into seemed to be able to tell that he was just not in the mood to be messed with or even talked to.

Even Thatch.

The pirate had made several attempts at trying to get them to hang out with him but Ace simply refused. He had been polite because he had no reason to be rude, but he was not going to neglect his little brother anymore for anyone on this ship. They would be leaving in a few months anyway and Luffy was his little brother and therefore his responsibility.

He had no ties to the men on board this ship.

He threw open the door as he arrived at their designated cabin. He had recently discovered that it was the cabin of the late second division commander and the only reason that it had been available for them was that he had died only a little while before they had arrived. He wondered where they would go when a new commander was chosen but brushed it off. It really didn't matter. They'd make due with whatever they were given.

He kicked the door shut with his foot and winced when it was just a little too loud and made Luffy moan in pain. "Sorry Lu," he apologized quietly. "Do you think you're up for trying a little dinner?"

"Do I have ta?" Ace winced at the rough voice. It was tired and lacked all of the Luffy enthusiasm it normally had.

"Can you just try," Sabo pleaded. "You haven't been able to keep anything down since yesterday afternoon."

"But my tummy hurts."

"Alright, but at least try to drink some more water."

Luffy agreed and Ace ran to the bed, after putting the fish on the desk, and sat behind the smaller boy to support him while Sabo gently guided the cup to his mouth. After just a few sips Luffy pulled his head away. "No more," he whined.

"Alright I guess," Sabo said putting the cup to the side, biting his lip. "Just get some sleep."

"Sabo and Ace will be here?"

"Of course we're going to be here," Ace answered. "Where else would we be?"

Luffy smiled as he quickly fell asleep. At least they were able to make him feel a little bit better.

"I'm going to try and get some fresh water to keep his forehead cool," Sabo said picking up a small wooden bowl they had found on deck and had stolen to use to treat Luffy's fever.

"Sabo. He's not getting better."

"I know. I. I just don't know what to do. I'm not a doctor."

"I know." Ace bit his lip before asking, "What are we going to do?"

"We could talk to one of the nurses on board," the blonde suggested. "Or maybe Thatch. Marco always seems to know what to do and he won't do anything to go against Captain Whitebeard so we know we can trust him because even the geezer says Whitebeard can be taken at his word. Namur might have some ideas."

"Then they would know that Luffy was vulnerable." He looked at his brother. The boy looked beaten down and tired. He also looked a little flushed. He hoped that Sabo wasn't getting sick as well. He didn't know if he'd be able to handle two sick brothers at once.

"Would it be all the bad," he asked quietly. "They had a chance for over a week when we weren't around to attack Luffy and they didn't. Don't you think that the geezer might have exaggerated a bit?"

Talking about the past few three weeks made Ace feel guilty. He was guilty because he ditched his brothers and he felt guilty now for brushing Thatch off. He _did_ have a lot of fun with the pirate who was always thinking of new things for them to do and try out. He had even invited Luffy along most of the time. Luffy was just too young to relate to for the man. But Ace did give him points for trying. But when push came to shove Ace would choose Luffy every time.

But Sabo did have a point. Luffy had been by himself and he had been perfectly fine, which meant that the pirates were trustworthy enough not to attack them.

"Maybe if he's not any better by tomorrow we'll go ask someone what we should do," Ace said slowly with a shrug.

"I like that idea." Sabo smiled before leaving the room to get the fresh water.

Later, much later, that night, Ace had just decided that he was going to get a few hours of sleep before relieving Sabo on Luffy watch. He was about to get settled when suddenly Luffy started shaking uncontrollably.

His eyes widened as Sabo pulled Luffy down on the bed a little so that his head won't hit the head board and then just let go.

"What's happening," he demanded heart pounding. This had never happened before.

"He's having a seizure I think."

"You _think_?"

"I told you I'm not a doctor!"

"What do we do?"

The blonde was now pulling his hair, tears in his eyes. "I don't know! Go get some help! I'll stay and make sure he doesn't get hurt."

Ace didn't need any further instructions. He took off running towards the first person he could think of.

* * *

Thatch sighed as he laid in bed trying to figure out what he had done wrong. It had been about two weeks since Luffy had been eaten by that alligator and Ace and Sabo refused to talk to him. Sure they were polite and would respond when spoken to but now the two boys just kept to themselves.

According to Namur Sabo wasn't talking to him either and for some sadistic reason it made him feel better to know that he wasn't the only one they were refusing to talk to.

Luffy had been as friendly as ever. He would bounce up to Thatch, Ace or Sabo, sometimes both, close behind, and strike up a conversation easily. It didn't seem like he was traumatized from the event or anything. But then again he hadn't even seen Luffy for about a week now. It was rare to catch sight of any of the trio now days and he had to wonder why.

Izo and Haruta told him that he shouldn't worry about it and just be glad that the brats weren't bugging him anymore. But Thatch liked it when they bugged him. They were fun to hang out with, especially Ace. There was just something about that kid. He was able to take a joke to the next level and he and Thatch were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with on the Moby Dick. He smirked thinking about the last joke he had played with the kid. They had managed to dye the entire sixth division's hair blue.

He missed playing pranks with Ace.

He missed Sabo being able to work out the small details he and Ace just couldn't with pranks. He missed the way Luffy would smile that smile that just didn't seem to fit on his face. He just missed them which was pathetic because they were just kids after all and they hadn't been on the ship all that long and they still were on the ship. What was he going to do when they left?

He sighed and forced his thoughts to calm down. He would just go to their cabin in the morning and see what was going on. Maybe Namur would go with him. After all he and Sabo were getting on really well before the trio stopped talking to everyone.

He was on the verge of sleep when he heard pounding on his door. He sat up, heart racing. He had not been expecting that. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself thinking that it was ridiculous he would have such a reaction while on board and blamed it on the fact that he had been in that moment between being asleep and being awake.

The pounding grew more frantic.

He climbed out of bed and stumbled across the room before throwing open the door. He didn't see anything so he looked down. A frantic Ace was standing there staring back at him, eyes wide with fear.

"What's wrong?"

The tears started before Thatch could do anything and all he got was a strangled, "Help."

He knelt down so that he was eye level with the ten-year old. "Hey calm down. What do you need help with?"

Ace didn't respond. He just latched onto his arm and started tugging him towards the trio's cabin. Thatch let himself be pulled along wondering what had happened that was bad enough that Ace would not only ask for help but would be crying too.

The door was thrown open so hard that it bounced against the wall as Ace ran in with Thatch.

Sabo looked up from where he was knelt on the bed, the same frantic look in his eyes that Ace had. "What's wrong," the pirate asked again automatically. These were tough kids, they wouldn't just freak out about any little thing. If they were this scared something big was happening.

Sabo just moved so that he had full view of the bed. He felt his eyes widen. This was bad.

Luffy was lying on the bed, face flushed, breathing uneven and shallow. It didn't take a doctor to figure out that the kid was sick.

"W-we don't know what to do," Sabo said, voice shaking. "He's never been this sick before. A-and we tried to get him better but his fever is really high and we don't know what to do."

Thatch nodded slowly before placing hand on the small boy's forehead and winced at the heat that was coming from it. He didn't know a lot about medical stuff but he knew enough to know that the kid was way too hot.

"We need to take him to the infirmary," he stated.

"No! Luffy hates the doctor," Ace said Sabo nodding in agreement.

Thatch almost smiled. So they still did think like children occasionally. They wanted to spare him the fear of going to the doctor and thought that they could handle it here. When they knew they couldn't handle it they thought that getting an adult would fix things. Unfortunately that was not true and this was far beyond Thatch's ability to help.

"His fever is too high. There is a chance if it's not brought down soon that he will have brain damage or even die."

The frantic look in their eyes grew to looks of pure horror at the thought. "If you let me take him to see the ship's doctor it might not be too late."

The two traded a look before nodding at one another. "We get to go with him," Sabo said.

"Well that's up to the doctor," Thatch said not wanting to get their hopes up of actually being able to stay with Luffy. Lyra, the resident doctor, was not a fan of unneeded personnel in _her_ infirmary.

It was then he noticed that both Sabo and Ace looked a little flushed as well. His hand shot up to rest on Sabo's, who was closer, forehead. He frowned when he noticed the boy was a little warm. "I think you both might be sick as well."

"We're fine," Ace protested. "It's Luffy who's sick."

There was no doubt that the straw hat wearer was sick but he had a feeling the other two were as well. Instead of arguing he just picked the small boy up, blankets and all, wrapped him up tightly so he wouldn't be exposed to the cool night air, not sure if this would help or not. "Let's get going."

He made his way below deck and down a hallway and soon found himself standing in front of his least favorite room on the ship. It was this room that his brothers and sisters would come to when they were injured or sick. He didn't like that this room had to exist, but at moments like these he was glad that it did.

He kicked open the door and saw several nurses walking around, tending to those lying in the beds. Thankfully it didn't look like too many of his brothers were here.

"Commander Thatch. What are you doing here," one of the nurses asked, noticing him.

"Luffy's sick," he said simply. That was all that it took before the boy was snatched out of his arms and put into bed.

A woman with blonde hair, pulled back into a messy bun was called and she quickly checked the boy over. "Thatch!" he quickly walked over to the bed, Ace and Sabo with him.

"Lyra," he greeted.

"How long has he had a fever," she demanded.

He looked at Ace, who looked at Sabo. "About a week," the blonde answered.

"And why is this the first time I'm seeing him?" she glared down at the two boys. If there was two thing you didn't do on the ship it was mess with one of Lyra's patients and ignore being sick.

"W-we thought we could handle it. We didn't think that it was this bad."

Her glare softened as she looked at the two downtrodden boys. Suddenly her hands shot out, much like Thatch's had earlier, as she checked both boys for a fever. "We need two more beds. You will be forgiven this once for not bringing him in sooner only because you are ill yourselves and it obviously impaired your judgment," she stated.

"Iris," she called a nurse over.

"Yes Doctor?"

"I need you to run a shallow lukewarm bath."

Thatch watch in fascination between Ace's and Sabo's beds as a tub was brought in and Luffy was stripped and placed in the water. "Iris can you tell me why the water is not ice cold," Lyra requested of the nurse.

"If the water is too cold the body temperature will fall too fast and send the body into shock."

"Very good." She turned towards another nurse. "I need a fever suppressant."

"Right away."

Lyra turned her attention on the boys. "Has there been any other symptoms?"

"He had a cough and a sore throat and a runny nose," Ace informed right away.

"And he had a seizure a few minutes ago," Sabo added, voice shaking. "At least I think that's what it was."

At hearing this Thatch's eyes widened and his heart rate picked up. Luffy had had a seizure? That's why they had been so frantic and scared. He would have been freaking out more than they had been had he been in that situation.

"At least you knew to get help after that," she said more to herself than anyone.

"Here's the medication you asked for," the nurse from earlier informed.

"Give him an injection and monitor his temperature. If his fever doesn't drop in a half hour then come find me."

"Alright doctor."

"In the meantime get him dressed and into bed."

She turned towards her two other new patients and frowned. "What are you still doing here commander? It's after visiting hours and you know the rules. You can come back tomorrow and check on them."

* * *

Thatch slumped in his seat at breakfast. He hadn't been able to sleep at all last night. After the trip to the infirmary he hadn't been able to calm down for hours. He just kept seeing Ace's and Sabo's pleading looks and Luffy's fever flushed face.

Imagining the small boy having a seizure.

He shivered at the thought of having to watch the normally cheerful and outgoing boy go through something like that. What he had seen had been enough.

"Well don't you look gorgeous this morning," Marco greeted sitting next to him.

"Shut up. I didn't sleep last night."

"Oh and why is that? On second thought I don't want to know," the first commander said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Get your mind out of the gutter. Luffy's sick."

Marco shot him a confused look. "I just saw the two older brats the other day. They didn't say anything about him being sick."

"Well apparently he's had a fever for about a week and it spiked last night. Ace was pounding on my door at about midnight last night; it would seem that Luffy had a seizure last night and it scared Sabo and Ace so bad that they came for help."

"Hey guys! What's going on," Haruta chirped as she took a seat across from Thatch.

"Luffy's sick," Marco said distractedly. "He had a seizure?" The blonde looked distressed at the thought. Probably because the boys were technically his responsibility and he hadn't even known Luffy was sick.

"That's what they told Lyra," Thatch shrugged.

"That's not good," Haruta commented quietly, automatically joining in.

"No it's really not. I'm going to go see what's going on as soon as visiting hours start."

"How are Ace and Sabo," Marco asked.

"What's wrong with Ace and Sabo," Namur asked joining them at the table.

"Luffy's sick," Haruta informed.

"And had a seizure," Marco added.

"And Sabo and Ace are sick too," Thatch concluded.

Within fifteen minutes the entirety of the Moby Dick knew that the three youngest passengers were sick. And despite the fact that almost every single one of the pirates had said the kids were annoying at least once since they had been on the ship all of them were very concerned about their wellbeing. Sabo, Ace, and Luffy were on their ship and it was their responsibility to protect and look out for them.

As soon as he was able, Thatch found himself with Marco in the infirmary looking at a scene he had never thought would happen.

Someone was actually standing up to Lyra.

"He's fine," Ace shouted standing on his bed, fist clenched.

"He needs to stay in his own bed," Lyra yelled back.

"They're mine and Sabo's beds, if it makes him feel better to sleep in them with us why does it matter if he stays in his own bed. He'll just whine and cry until he gets what he wants and that won't be good for anyone!"

"Of course he's going to whine and complain. All children whine and complain when they're sick!"

"Is there a problem," Marco asked.

"She's trying to make Luffy move," Ace said looking as if she had just committed the ultimate crime.

Thatch looked over to Sabo's bed to see Luffy sound asleep despite the noise and Sabo holding him tightly glaring at the doctor. He briefly wondered if that meant he was feeling better considering he had to actually move beds. He doubted that Sabo would carry Luffy to his bed.

"Just leave them Lyra," Marco said exasperation in his voice. "They're not hurting anyone and they're used to sharing." He smiled repeating Sabo's words from their first day about the bed in their room. "They're all probably more comfortable this way anyway."

Thatch was sure Marco was going to be avoiding Lyra at all costs in the near to distant future if the look she gave him was any indication of what was to come.

Ace was looking at Marco in confusion. It was clear that the boy had expected them to take her side. The confusion slowly transformed into a very small smile and looked pleased.

"Where do you get off telling me what to do in _my_ infirmary," Lyra demanded getting into Marco's face, poking him in the chest. "I know you're the first division commander but in here I'm higher than the captain. In here I am God. So I don't have to do anything you say."

The man took a step back and put up his arms as a kind of barrier between the two of them. "I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that there all more comfortable when they're together and I figured that they would get better faster if they were more comfortable."

Her eyes narrowed. "GET OUT!"

"Fine, I'm leaving. But just let the kid stay where he is."

* * *

**I hope that you enjoyed this chapter :) let me know what you thought.**


	6. Marco and Luffy

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**So anyone who read Farewell, which is part of my series of one shots "Being Brothers," probably saw this coming. I am really excited about this chapter because it is the first one that I wrote. I was going to do it as a one shot and well…**

**So I am going out of town tomorrow morning and was informed by my brother that even if I bring my laptop I probably won't have any time to do anything with it anyway. So I probably won't be posting for two weeks, unless I can sneak away for a while. **

**Kouru-Kage- That is why I need a beta. Thanks for the help. I read through these chapters so many times and yet I still make mistakes. I'll get around to fixing everything that you pointed out when I have time. And yes the Moby Dick's crew are worse than the Hogwarts rumor mill. **

**Well enjoy :)**

* * *

**Ch. 6 Marco and Luffy**

Marco ran a hand through his hair. Today was going to be a really long day. They were docked at a town for the next few days and he was, as usual, in charge of making sure that all the supplies were restocked. He was hoping that he would be able to do all of this one day so that he would be able to relax in town for the remainder of the stay.

Adding to his list of things he had to do, he also had to make sure that the midget brat was eating. Luffy had recovered from that horrible fever and was released to go back to his cabin. The only problem was that Ace and Sabo were still sick and were going to be for the next few days. The two patients had insisted that they were better and tried to leave with Luffy only to be denied. They had put up quite a fight and only stopped due to exhaustion and the fact that Marco had promised to keep an eye on their little brother.

Apparently Thatch had passed some sort of test with the two older brats and was now deemed worthy enough to talk to and for some reason Namur and Marco were given the same right.

He had no idea what was going through those kids' heads.

Thatch and Namur were both asked to sit with Sabo and Ace while they were recovering.

He was given babysitting duty and very explicit instructions that he was to make sure that Luffy stayed off the railing of the ship so he wouldn't fall into the ocean and was well fed.

For some reason Ace and Sabo were worried about Luffy eating enough.

So with this in mind he made his way towards the Brats' cabin determined to pick up the kid, feed him, and then pawn him on someone else because he had too much to do.

As he rounded the corner he stopped dead in his tracks.

There was Luffy hanging off the edge of the ship, foot hooked on the railing. He ran as fast as he could as the little foot slipped from the railing. He sighed in relief as he snatched the little boy right before he was out of arm reach.

He sighed in relief before starting to pull Luffy back onto deck but almost had the boy torn from his grip with an unexpected and sharp tug. He frowned when he saw Luffy holding a pipe with rope tied around the end and a smaller sea king attached at the end.

"Let go of the pipe," he told Luffy.

"No!" the boy screamed back. "It's Ace's! He'll be mad if I lose it!"

Marco tightened his grip and pulled Luffy towards him, this time expecting the tug. He wrapped an arm around Luffy and held him to his chest tightly and leaned back so that they wouldn't be pulled forward and reached for the pipe that the boy still held. He reached up and untied the rope that was around the end but the rope snapped before he could reach it.

He and Luffy went flying backwards as the force that was pulling them forward was suddenly gone.

Luffy looked up at him and laughed. "That was fun Pineapple Head."

That could have been bad.

Almost everybody else was eating at this point and if Marco hadn't been able to get to him; well he was pretty sure Luffy didn't know how to swim. It might have taken too long to get anyone else over here to rescue the brat.

" the hell are you doing?" He yelled at the boy letting his fear come out in anger.

Luffy looked startled. "I-I was trying to get somethin' to eat," he said looking down at his feet. "But I guess I'm not strong enough to pull up that big fish."

"Why didn't you just go to the galley?" Marco demanded rubbing his head trying to figure out what the brat was thinking

"I couldn't remember where it was," he mumbled. "Ace and Sabo always come and get me when we eat there. Sorry Mr. Pineapple."

Marco sighed running a hand through his hair as the adrenalin wore off. "Are you alright?" The boy nodded. "Good. How about we go get you something to eat?"

The straw hat boy instantly perked up and smiled up at him. "Can I have some meat?"

"I'm sure that will be fine," Marco said as he turned and started walking towards the galley making sure that he had a seven year old merrily skipping next to him the entire time.

A half hour and a well fed Luffy later Marco found himself walking to the infirmary having been talked into it by a set of big watery eyes followed by a too big grin. After just the short amount of time spent with the kid Marco could understand why it was rare to see the youngest brother not in the company of at least one of his brothers.

He had a thought that Ace and Sabo were protecting the crew from Luffy more than they were protecting their brother from the crew. The brat just walked into a room and was able to get anything that he wanted.

Although it probably didn't help that most of the crew was still feeling a little protective of him due to his recent illness.

Before reaching the door to the infirmary he put a hand on the brat's shoulder to stop him. "Alright kid, I said that I would take you to see Ace and Sabo but we have to hurry otherwise Lyra is going to have our heads. And by our heads I mean mine." She was still not happy with him.

The brat just laughed and said, "You're funny Pineapple Head."

"My name is Marco."

"Right." The commander just shook his head before opening the door.

He didn't know if he should or shouldn't have been surprised to see Thatch sitting by Ace's bed, the two playing some card game. Namur was sitting next to Sabo the two talking excitedly about something, the kid's voice was hoarse due to the sore throat he probably had. Luffy hadn't jumped on either of the beds like Marco had expected. Instead he stopped just inside the room and for the first time since he had met the three brats Luffy looked unsure.

He gave the kid a nudge. He had been adamant about seeing his brothers and now he looked like he had changed his mind. From what he knew about the kid, it wasn't like him.

"Luffy!" Sabo's excited voice called from across the room. Ace's head turned towards the door and Luffy instantly slapped his trademark grin on his face before he bounced over to his brothers and told them about the adventure he had that morning trying to catch his breakfast.

When he got to the part about him actually falling off the boat what color the two older boys had vanished. "Don't worry though, Pineapple Head-"

"Marco." The man ignored the snickers from his fellow commanders at the name that, unfortunately, was beginning to stick, especially with the other commanders.

"Right. He caught me."

"Luffy you really need to be more careful," Sabo pleaded. "You can't swim."

"If Marco hadn't been there you would have fallen into the ocean," Ace scolded quietly. They both looked as if the very thought of losing their brother was painful and Marco had to wonder what they had been through that they understood what it would be like to lose someone in that way. Most children their age didn't have a clue what it would mean for someone to die.

"Sorry. I'll try."

"Don't worry," Thatch spoke up, "I'm sure that you two are feeling well enough that Namur wouldn't mind showing Luffy how to swim. I wouldn't mind showing him a thing or two either."

Ace and Sabo shot each other a look before both laughing awkwardly. "Yeah that's a great idea," Sabo agreed a little too loudly.

"But Sabo-"

"Luffy look a bird," Ace interrupted pointing out the small window instantly distracting his brother.

"Where?"

"Sabo," Namur questioned but the blonde joined his brothers at the window and all three were talking excitedly about the bird.

"That must be some impressive bird," Thatch stated dryly as the three commanders traded looks with each other wondering what the brats weren't telling them.

In the month and a half that they had been on the Moby Dick it was more than a little obvious that Ace and Sabo had trust issues. In fact it had been a huge step for them to actually come to Thatch and ask for help when Luffy was sick. Marco was impressed with the fourth division commander and wondered what he had done to earn the trust of the older boys.

He decided to ask while the boys were distracted with the apparently impressive bird.

"You're kidding me right," Thatch asked with a laugh.

"What? They do trust you."

"They trust you too." The other commander stated with certainty. Marco gave him a disbelieving look. He had been watching out for the brats since they had been on board rather anyone noticed or not and he knew for a fact that Thatch was their go to guy, Namur was quickly becoming their second go to person. "Think about it. When have you ever seen Luffy without Ace or Sabo around?"

He thought for a moment. "There was that one time when- wait, no Sabo was there."

"Exactly. He is either in their cabin, close to their cabin, or with one of them. And now they are asking you to look after him."

"So getting to babysit means that they trust me?"

"Yup."

Marco shook his head disbelievingly. "Too bad I have too much to do today to watch him." He shrugged.

"Don't you dare push this off onto somebody else. In their minds we're all connected. If one of us is trustworthy then we're all trustworthy. If you try to get someone else to watch Luffy they're never going to trust another living soul on this ship."

"So you want me to give up a day so that _you_ can play games and pull pranks?"

Thatch thought a moment before nodding. "Yup."

"Not going to happen. Besides he'll have more fun with someone else."

"Marco I'm serious."

"Luffy," Marco called ignoring the other man. He watched as the kid perked up and turned at the sound of his name and turned. "It's time to let your brothers rest. You've riled them up enough and if Lyra finds out she's going to chop off my-" he stopped himself wondering if it were appropriate to tell the seven year old about castration.

"Who's Lyra?"

Marco rolled his eyes. "Doctor Lady," he responded not sure if he should be happy that he was learning what Luffy called everyone.

"Oh. She's nice. I like her."

"I know you do." The man grabbed his charge by the waist with one arm and put him under an arm so that he could carry him with ease. "Now say bye to everyone."

"Bye Ace. Bye Sabo." He waved at them.

"Bye Luffy," they responded.

"Bye Thatch. Bye Shark Guy."

"Bye Luffy."

"My name is Namur."

"Right."

Marco then turned and left the room taking the straw hat kid with him smirking because Luffy didn't know Namur's name either. "Now let's go find someone to watch you."

"Can't I stay with Pineapple Head?"

"Marco."

"Right."

"No. I have a lot to do and I can't have you getting in the way."

"Please. I promise I'll be good and not get in the way."

"Nope. We'll find someone else that has enough time."

"But I don't know anyone else. I don't have any friends like Ace and Sabo. I want to have a friend so that I won't be alone when they go play."

He turned Luffy right side up and put him on the deck before kneeling down so that he was eye level with the boy. "Well, then you can make a friend. With someone else."

Luffy bit his lip looking as if the world was going to end just because Marco didn't have time to play. "But I want Pineapple Head to be my friend."

"Look kid, I have a lot of work to do, we just need to find someone who isn't as busy as me and they'll play with you."

"Can I stay with you, please? I promise that I'll try really hard to not get in your way and to stay quiet."

Marco was about to insist, once again, that they go find someone else but he made the mistake of looking into the big, bright, sad, brown eyes. Really Luffy should have a bounty just because of his puppy-eyes. The kid could get someone to destroy the world for him if he just used that look.

Or maybe he was just a pushover.

Yeah, that's probably it.

"Well I did promise your brothers. I guess it will be okay, but you have to stay out of my way." The brunette gave an excited nod while the blonde gave a resigned sigh. "Let's go."

* * *

Marco wanted to hit his head against his desk. He hated paperwork just as much as the next person but unfortunately he was forced to do not only his own but the second division's as well considering they had just lost their commander almost three months ago. He was currently looking for someone to replace the old commander but he hadn't seen anyone he thought would be good at the job and strong enough to protect the rest of the division. He was considering Teach just because the man had seniority but for some reason the idea just didn't seem to sit well with him.

The brat had been surprisingly quiet. He had only really made a racket for the first hour and a half. Marco didn't really care because the brat was entertaining himself and it wasn't so loud that Marco couldn't tune him out if need be. The boy was currently drawing with a pen and some paper Marco had offered him when he noticed that the kid was bored and trying very hard to keep out of his way. The only sound that had escaped him in the past hour and half was a quiet singing of a song that only Luffy seemed to know.

Something about islands and idiots.

The man looked over at the papers that were still in his to do pile and decided that he had enough for now and got and stretched catching his charge's attention.

"Are you done," he asked looking hopeful.

"I'm done with paperwork for now."

"What next?" came the question as the boy abandoned his picture and jumped up.

"Well I have to go to town and buy some supplies for our trip to the next island."

"We get to go to town?"

"Yes I have to go to town. You can come but it's not going to be fun."

"Yay! I get to go to town with Pineapple Head."

"Marco."

"Right."

"Well come on we'll get some lunch and then head into town. We have a lot of stuff to buy."

* * *

Marco for the first time today was happy. His day was going much better than he had expected when he had woken up this morning. He had been able to get everything that they needed in just a few short hours and were now in the last shop. He was talking to the owner of the store about the large order of food they would need, ignoring Luffy as he ran around, causing havoc, and being chased by three store attendants.

"Thank you. Someone will be by to pick everything up in three days."

"No. Thank you," the owner said looking happy. Marco supposed that this was the biggest order the man had ever had.

He looked up to see the straw hatted boy climbing the shelves while the three shop attendants begged him to come down before he broke something. "Come on Brat. We're leaving." He caught Luffy as the boy came flying towards him. "Having fun?" Luffy grinned at him and nodded. He shifted so that he was now holding the kid by the waist under his arm again. It was an easy way to make sure he stayed out of trouble.

"Yeah. Thanks for playing with me," the boy grinned at the three now exhausted looking workers all waving looking relieved to see him go.

Marco couldn't help but laugh at their faces as he walked out.

Really, the brat wasn't that bad. He had listened to Marco all day and had been, for the most part, well behaved. He just needed to burn off all of his excess energy he had and the high shelves in the last shop they had been to were probably just way too tempting to pass up and the man wasn't going to take away his fun. Not when his work was finally done and the kid had been nice company. It had actually been fun to see the boy run around in circles as they walked around town going to the various shops.

"How about we go get a snack," he suggested happy to indulge in Luffy's favorite thing.

"Really?!"

"Yup. You can have one thing."

"Yay! You're the best Pineapple Head."

"Marco."

"Right."

The pirate put the straw hat boy on his feet and smiled as he started running around him excitedly singing about snack time. This continued until they reached a bar that served food and Marco had deemed safe enough for children. He took a seat at the bar and helped the kid climb onto the stool next to him.

"What'll it be?" the bar keeper asked.

"Meat."

"I'll have Sake and get some juice for the kid and his meat."

"Coming right up."

They had been sitting in the bar for about fifteen minutes when they heard a commotion outside. Luffy paused in his eating to look towards the door.

Marco frowned.

Those were Whitebeard pirates and what more they were from his division. And they were fighting. He sighed in annoyance before standing up. "Stay here," he told the boy before making his way outside toward the two morons that were fighting.

"Oi! We are guests in this town so try to make a good impression idiots," he yelled pulling them off each other. It took another ten minutes before they were civil enough that Marco could leave and get back to the brat.

When he walked into the bar he was surprised to find Luffy's stool empty. Looking around he quickly found the boy.

He appeared to be less than happy.

"I said stop it! I don't like it!" Luffy grabbed his hat from around his neck and stuffed it onto his head before turning around and trying to walk away from a group of men that seemed to be harassing him. "Don't touch me!" screamed the little boy as he fought to get away from one of the men. Getting fed up Luffy bit down on the man's hand and then ran away. One of the other men in the group was able to latch onto one of his arms and Marco watched in fascination as Luffy kept going and the limb stretched.

The men seemed to think this was funny, especially when Luffy's body flew across the room back towards them with a snap.

"Oh come on kid we're just having a bit of fun. I can think of a few things we can do that would be even _more_ fun if you're up to it." The man latched onto Luffy's other arm and lifted him off the ground so they he couldn't get away and smiled lecherously.

Marco felt his anger rising at the implications.

Luffy was a kid.

Luffy was one of the kids under his protection.

Luffy was one of his brats.

How dare that _pervert_ say something like that to one of _his_ brats?

The first division commander of the Whitebeard pirates walked deliberately towards the man that was now stretching Luffy's face and commenting on how much fun he was going to have with the kid's flexibility. Luffy tried to push the man way but to no avail. Marco latched a hand onto the man's shoulder squeezing almost to the point where it would crush the bone.

"What are you doing to Luffy?" he asked in a clam voice, ignoring the man as he cried out for him to let go.

Every head in the group snapped towards him. He was almost insulted at the surprised look on the brat's face.

"Oi let go of Ricky."

Marco slowly looked over at the moron who had just yelled at him.

"No," he said, calmly digging his thumb into "Ricky's" shoulder.

It was then that one of the other men's eyes grew wide as he looked at Marco. So someone had finally recognized just who's crew he was on.

"Dude, let go of the kid," the man yelled at Ricky. He pointed a shaking finger at Marco. "He's part of the Whitebeard Pirates! That's Marco the Phoenix."

Luffy was instantly released and the poor kid brought his arms close to his body so that nobody else could hold onto him and ran to stand behind Marco.

"If I ever see you so much as look at the kid funny ever again I'm not sure you'd live to regret it," Marco informed the group of men before pushing "Ricky" across the room and through the wall. "Let's go kid." The pirate placed a hand on top of Luffy's head leading him out of the bar and down towards the beach. Once there instead of heading towards the Moby Dick he made his way to the sand and sat down. He didn't really feel like getting back on the ship anyway and the brat still needed to burn of his excess energy.

Funnily enough, Luffy hadn't said a word since they had left the bar and that was a little concerning.

"A-are you going to hurt me now?"

Marco's attention was snapped onto the small straw hat wearer.

"Why on earth would I do that?"

The boy shrugged. "Grandpa told me not to tell anyone I was made outta rubber cuz then they would hurt me," he explained still not looking up. "And you're really strong so I don't think I could fight you yet."

"What makes you think you could ever fight me," Marco questioned thinking over what he had just heard.

"I'm going to be strong enough to beat you someday."

"Is that so?" He couldn't help but smile. "Are you going to be a marine like your grandpa and come after me?"

"No way am I going to be a marine. I'm going to be King of the Pirates."

Marco blinked. He had not expected to hear that. Not from Garp's grandson. Sure Namur had told him that Sabo said they wanted to be pirates but he hadn't really believed him. But Luffy had said he was going to be Pirate King as if stating a simple fact. It seemed as if he talked about it a lot.

"Pirate King huh?"

"Yup."

"Alright then I guess I'll have to keep an eye on you. Make sure you don't become a threat."

Luffy giggled a bit before growing serious and looking down at the ground.

Marco studied the boy for a few minutes, his mind going back to what Luffy had said about being rubber. "You ate a devil fruit?" he finally asked.

"I ate the Gum-Gum fruit," Luffy announced looking happy. "I thought it was dessert."

"I bet that wasn't a tasty dessert," Marco commented thinking back on when he had eaten his fruit.

"It was gross," Luffy confirmed with a nod of his head.

Marco chuckled before speaking again. "Your gramps was right about you not telling anyone about being made out of rubber. There are many people on the Grand Line who would try to hurt you or use you if they knew."

Luffy looked back towards the ground.

"That being said, I'm not one of those people. I promise that I'm not going to hurt you."

Luffy's head shot up and he looked up at the pirate with hopeful eyes. "You're not?"

Marco smiled at the boy's trusting nature. He would have to make sure that no one took advantage of that. "Of course not. You know, I ate a devil fruit too."

"Really?"

"Yup. I turn into a phoenix."

The brunette looked up at him with a blank look "What's that?"

"It's a mythical bird made out of fire," he explained in a way the kid might understand.

"So you turn into a mystery bird."

It was said so seriously Marco couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah that's pretty much it."

"That's really cool."

"You know? It really is."

The boy sat next to the pirate running his hand through the sand with a thoughtful look on his face. "You're not gonna tell anyone that I'm rubber are you?"

"Well, anyone on the crew wouldn't care and none of them would hurt you." he looked down to the boy and frowned at the distressed look on his face. "But, it's not really anybody's business so I won't tell," he said with a shrug.

"Are you going to tell Ace and Sabo that you know?"

"Don't really have a reason to."

The boy giggled. "Thanks Marco."

"Mar-" he stopped mid word realizing what Luffy had just said. The pirate sat stunned for a minute. Luffy had said his name right. It was the first time he had done so without being reminded. He smiled down at the little hooligan. "What are friends for?"

* * *

**I hope you all enjoyed it :)  
**


	7. Routine Attack

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**I have over 100 reviews! I can barely contain my excitement! I've never had so many reviews before!**

**Anyway. I'm back from vacation and now on my way back up to school. I apologize about how short this chapter is. I also apologize for not being able to respond to too many reviews. I do read them all and appreciate the time that everyone takes to write them. I plan on responding as soon as I have time. **

**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy :)**

* * *

**Ch. 7 Routine Attack**

Edward Newgate was enjoying himself immensely- not that he usually wasn't enjoying himself. He had invited his three young guests to sit with him for a while after hearing that they had been sick. He wanted to check on them himself and invited them to sit with him for a while and had decided to tell them a few stories from his earlier years.

He was now telling them the tale about how he had fought a giant single handedly and won.

The youngest one would gasp and say things like "awesome" and "so cool". His brother, the one with the top hat, sat next to him shushing him every now and then. The last of the boys sat further away fiddling with a pipe that he held but every now and then would turn to stare with wide eyes whenever he reached a point in his stories that was particularly heart-stopping.

"Wow," the little one cheered once he was done with his latest story, "You're really strong."

"So I've been told," the captain responded good naturedly.

"He's the strongest man in the world Lu," the blonde said.

"Really? That's so cool!"

"Settle down Luffy," the cowboy hatted one commanded lightly.

"Hey old man!" the blonde called up to him.

"Yes brat?"

"Do you have any more stories like that one?"

The captain laughed. "Of course. I have lived a long life; I have more stories than you can imagine. How about I tell you about the time that I-"

"Pops!" Marco interrupted him.

"Yes Son?"

"There's a ship approaching. We don't know if it's hostile yet."

"Does it have a Jolly Roger?"

"One that I don't recognize."

"Hey Marco," sang the smallest brat.

"Hey Luffy."

The captain looked down at the youngsters that were now all on their feet looking excited. "Warn the men. Prepare for battle just in case."

"Right away." The commander look towards the brats. "Hooligans, get below deck," he commanded.

"Do we have to? I wanna see the fight."

"Don't argue with me Luffy. It could be dangerous and if you're out here you might be in the way."

"Nonsense," Whitebeard said. He wasn't going to let some no name pirates ruin the fun he and the brats were having. "They can stay if they want. They won't get in the way and there is no safer place on this ship."

"If you're sure." With that the commander ran off to prepare the men for battle.

"Now where were we?"

"You were going to tell us another story," the blonde brat stated.

"Oh yes. How about a story from my own childhood?"

There was a loud boom followed by a whistle.

"Was that a cannon?" he heard the older brunette asked, sounding excited.

Whitebeard looked up to see a cannon ball flying towards him. He didn't bother moving from his spot knowing that one of his sons would knock it off course. He was proven right as Vista appeared and cut it in half. There were a series of cannons being fired but per usual none made it to their destination.

Instead of paying attention to the, as of now, one sided battle he called the three children's attention back to him telling them the story from his childhood of how he found a cave that he was lost in for three days before finding his way out and discovering some of the sweetest fruits he had ever tasted.

The story was interesting enough to keep their attention on him until they all felt a jolt. The three went flying a few feet. What had hit them? He turned towards the opposing ship to see that it had actually been able to get closer and was now sending cannons at them over a short range. Those were a little more difficult to get rid of and the Moby Dick took a series of hits causing the ship to rock. And yet the enemy's ship still grew closer.

"Ace? What's going on?" he heard the little on ask his older brother.

"The ship is under attack. But don't worry Luffy everything will be fine."

"You'll stay with me right?"

"Wherever you go I'll be there with you. It's not like what happened with Bluejam."

Whitebeard felt intrigued by this but decided that unless they volunteered the information then it really wasn't his business. After another jolt, he decided that he had enough. He stood and glared at the opposing ship. The cannons stopped abruptly and a man in a long coat appeared. "I am the captain of this ship and I am here to challenge the pirate Whitebeard."

"You're still three decades too young to challenge me brat."

"Well if it isn't the Strongest Man in the world," the young man mocked. "I am here to take your head."

The older man sighed. "Try if you must."

The fight didn't last long.

They never did.

The captain attacked and all Whitebeard had to do was hit him once and the other captain bounced three times across the deck of the Moby Dick through the ship's railing and into the ocean.

He was weaker than most who tried to challenge him.

He must have some strong fighters on his crew to actually get as close as he had.

"Wow that was so cool!" the little brat cheered turning to Whitebeard his eyes shining while the other two ran over to the railing to look over the side.

"Oi, back away," Marco said dragging them back towards the captain. "We don't know much about him. He might try to shoot you or something."

The two complained but did as they were told.

Whitebeard smiled down at the three. They had handled the situation very well. The only emotion they had shown at the prospect of battle was excitement. There was no trace of fear at all. He would have to make sure that he kept them close if a real battle should break out. He wouldn't want them to get cocky and end up hurt.

"He's back," Thatch said pointing toward the man that was now climbing back onto the ship looking angry.

"He's either really brave or really stupid," Izo commented looking unimpressed.

"My guess is stupid," Haruta put in.

"How dare you embarrass me in front of my crew!" the other captain yelled, pulling out his gun and pointing it at Whitebeard.

Like that would work.

He seemed to realize that too; instead of taking the shot, he aimed towards the captain's feet. Towards-

"LUFFY!"

It was race against time as everyone realized who he was aiming at. Marco rushed the opposing captain while Ace and Sabo tackled their brother to the ground just as Whitebeard used the blade of his bisento to block the bullet.

The pirate crew all turned to stare at the man in shock that was now being held by a furious looking Marco.

"You were right Haruta," Izo said. "He's stupid."

The first division commander threw the man at his captain's feet.

"I thought you were here to challenge me," the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates stood at his full height glaring down at the man who dared attack someone under his protection. "You were here to take my head and instead attack a child? Tell me now why I should not kill you where you stand?" he growled.

The man tried to stutter out an answer but Whitebeard was done with him.

He swung his bisento and using his devil fruit powers sent the mean flying off his ship and towards somewhere unknown and most likely dead.

The crew of the other ship seemed to realize that they should leave as quickly as possible and did so with no resistance.

"Are you alright?" Whitebeard asked the three boys who were now staring up at him. They all nodded in unison. "And you're not hurt?" he asked the smaller one who shook his head. "Good."

He allowed himself to calm his anger, knowing that the little ones were safe, and sat down in his chair pulling out a bottle of sake. He drank deeply before turning to the three brats that were now starring up at him, all three with eyes shining. He smiled. He could get used to having the youngsters around. "Now where were we in the story?"

"That was so cool!" Luffy cheered.

"Y-you just threw that man. I don't even see him anymore," Ace said turning his head towards where the pirate had been thrown. "How did you do that?"

"Are you really that strong?" Sabo asked looking amazed.

"Pops is that strong- but it helps that he ate the tremor-tremor fruit," Marco informed.

"H-he ate a devil fruit?" the blonde asked turning to stare in wonder at the captain.

"That's right. Being from the East Blue you probably didn't even know that devil fruits were actually real. I hear that most of that ocean thinks that they're just myths," Thatch said with a smile.

"We've met a devil fruit user," Ace informed him. "We just didn't think that we would be meeting another one anytime soon."

The captain raised an eyebrow intrigued. Not many who had the powers of the devil fruit went to the weakest of the blues. They usually all came to the Grand Line to prove their strength.

"Really," Thatch asked. "Well we have quite a few people who ate devil fruits on board. Marco and Pops being two of them."

Ace turned to Marco. "You ate a fruit?"

"That's right."

"Which one?"

"A mythical zoan fruit. I can transform into a phoenix."

"That's a mystery bird," Luffy informed his brothers.

"I know what a phoenix is," Sabo said. "How do you?"

"Marco told me."

"What other powers do people on the ship have," Ace asked turning to Thatch. The captain watched, content, as his son explained to the three brats the different fruits that various members of the family had eaten.

* * *

**Well there it is. I wrote this chapter to kind of show a little bit of what Whitbeard is thinking. Also to have the trio learn about the other fruit users on board. I hope you like it. I know its short but if I'm able to get everything ready for school sooner than planned I'll upload a longer chapter later this week.  
**

**Let me know what you think.**


	8. First Snowfall

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**Okay for some reason I've always imagined Dawn Island having a fairly warm climate and Luffy's home island having very mild and mostly warm winters, probably because he's always wearing shorts. I have no idea if this is true or not but oh well. Sorry if it's not.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter**

* * *

**Ch. 8 First Snowfall**

Ace shivered as he added yet another blanket to the pile that was already heaped on top of him. He had been woken up about an hour ago from the feeling of cold. It had shocked him because it had been so hot last night that they had decided that sleeping together in the bed was just not an option. He and Sabo had opted to take the floor and give Luffy the bed. Now he was wishing that he had taken it; at least the bed would be warm and not freezing cold like the wood floor he was currently lying on. He looked towards Sabo and saw that he too was struggling to get warm and had an excess amount of blankets. Turning to look at his little brother, Ace noticed that Luffy only had a light blanket and while still asleep, was shivering.

He sat up.

This was ridiculous.

He gathered up his heaps of blankets and spread them over Luffy before he climbed over the smaller boy and settled under the covers between Luffy and the wall. Sabo joined them soon after and spread two blankets over his brothers before throwing the remainder at Ace.

"Use those to put between you and the wall. It will act as an insulator and hopefully keep you warm."

Ace didn't need to be told twice. He quickly stuffed the blankets behind him before snuggling under the covers and moving towards the heat source that was his brothers. This was the reason why he made sure Luffy was in the middle. It would be weird if he and Sabo got this close but Luffy liked to cuddle and would do so as often as allowed, and Ace was really cold and willing to do just about anything to warm up at the moment.

"Why is it so freaking cold? Isn't it summer?"

"Well in the Grand Line each island has its own atmosphere. Maybe we're approaching a winter island?" Sabo said.

"How do you know that," Ace questioned.

"Namur told me."

They were quiet for a while, thankful that the heat was slowly starting to build.

"Winter was never this cold back home."

"That's because we lived in a warm climate."

"Nowhere should ever be this cold," Ace complained.

"Ace, Sabo, shut up 'm sleepin'," Luffy mumbled.

The two boys laughed quietly because Luffy had just yelled at them in his sleep. They settled down and allowed themselves to drift off to sleep again.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

They were awakened by the sound of someone pounding on their door. "OI WAKE UP YOU LOT!"

Ace frowned. It was Thatch.

He was too cold to deal with him or anyone right now.

"Sabo tell him to go away," he requested sleepily.

"Go away," the blonde said not nearly loud enough to be heard on the other side of the door, snuggling deeper into the covers.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Sorry I tried."

"WAKE UP! YOU'RE GOING TO MISS BREAKFAST!" the fourth commander yelled/sang.

This caused the warm mass Ace had been cuddling with to spring up. "Food! We have to go eat or we'll starve. Come on get up!" The boy jumped on the bed before he stopped and wrapped his arms around himself. "COLD!"

"No kidding. Get back in bed Lu," Ace said pulling him down into the middle so that he and Sabo could have their heat source back.

He decided that he really hated being cold. He really wished that he could be warm all the time. Or at least have a fire with him at all times to keep him warm.

It was then that all three of their stomachs growled and they had the dilemma of either staying warm in their bed or eating.

Their door burst open letting even more cold air in. It was unusual for anyone to come into their cabin without permission but it did happen on occasion. Usually it was Thatch but this time it was the first division commander. "What are you all still doing in bed? You're not sick again are you," he asked sounding slightly concerned.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" Ace and Sabo yelled.

"Hi Marco!"

"Hi Luffy," he greeted as his fellow commander joined him and shut the door. Ace had noticed that Luffy had taken to greeting the pirate by name every time he saw him. And he noticed that Marco would return the greeting with a smile every time.

"Seriously, you are usually up before now. Is everything alright," Thatch asked. Ace groaned before sitting up, making sure he had a blanket securely wrapped around himself.

The two commanders were wearing scarves and gloves and heavy coats. So they knew it was going to get cold. Why didn't they warn them?

"It's too cold to get out of bed," Ace informed them shivering despite his blanket.

"Yeah," Luffy and Sabo agreed.

"Don't you have winter clothes," Marco asked. "Garp said that you had everything you would need."

"You wear different cloths in winter?" Luffy asked.

"It's normal to wear warmer cloths in the winter. We didn't bother at home because winter wasn't that much cooler than summer," Sabo explained.

"Oh. I want to go back where it's warm," Luffy whined.

"Me too," Ace whined as well making his little brother laugh and Sabo to shoot him a confused look.

"You mean to tell me that all you have are shorts and T-shirts?" Marco asked.

"I have my coat," Sabo said pointing towards his tail coat that was hung on the back of the desk chair.

"Alright, but you don't have anything that would actually be useful in cold weather? Garp didn't get you anything?"

"Grandpa didn't in cloths," Luffy informed trying to snuggle closer to Ace. The older brother was happy to oblige and wrapped an arm around him glad to have the warmth.

Marco sighed. "You all go to breakfast. Let me see what I can do."

"Can we take our blankets," Sabo asked.

"How else are you going to get to the galley without freezing," Thatch asked making the trio smile.

Entering the galley Thatch offered to get them their food so that they wouldn't trip over their makeshift coats. They all thanked him before taking a seat next to Namur and Izo.

"Why do you have blankets," he asked.

"Because we didn't know that there were different cloths for when it's cold," Luffy explained. It wasn't that they didn't know it was that they never had to think about having warmer cloths but Ace didn't feel like correcting him.

A half hour later they were done eating and Marco arrived with three scarves, and old coats. "This is all I could find," he said.

Sabo dived for the black coat while Ace grabbed the brown one. They both quickly put them on and frowned at how big they were. But at least they were warm.

Marco helped Luffy button up a green coat that looked like it was going to eat him.

"This might not work," Marco said seeing how the sleeves on the coat Luffy was wearing was dragging on the ground. "This will have to do until we can get you some coats that actually fit in town."

"No these will do fine," Sabo said rolling up his sleeves so that his hands were now poking out.

Ace did as his brother and was pleased that he was now able to use his hands.

"Here are those gloves you wanted commander," a deep voice sounded behind them. Luffy tensed and instantly took a step towards Ace who wrapped an arm around him. Every time the man was in the vicinity, Luffy would get really quiet and seek out the comfort and protection his brothers would offer without hesitation.

"Thanks Teach. I appreciate it but I think they're going to be too big so they'll just get some when they get new coats."

"If you're sure then," the large man shrugged, turned and walked away.

Luffy calmed down once he was out of sight.

"That's really not necessary," Ace informed Marco. "We can make do with these."

"Nonsense Luffy's going to trip too many times to actually enjoy the snow if he wears that. Besides it won't offer enough protection from the cold if your coats are too big."

"We don't have money," Sabo informed. "So we'll take what we get. Thank you for finding these for us."

Marco gave them a confused look. "I know you don't have money. I'm going to buy you all some winter cloths."

"You _really_ don't have to do that," Ace said quickly. He didn't want them wasting their money. He didn't want his new friends to start thinking of him as a burden.

"I like this one," Luffy said flapping his arms, giggling when the sleeves flopped around. "Look they're flying."

"Well then you can wear that one until we get you a new one," Marco said turning towards the two older boys ignoring Luffy's disappointed 'oh.' "You are my responsibility. If I want to get you new coats and gloves then you will be getting new coats and gloves. Isn't that right Thatch?"

"I can buy Ace's," the other commander offered with a look that was daring Ace to argue.

"I'll get Sabo's," Namur volunteered.

"So I guess that means it's you and me Short Stack."

Luffy giggled at the nickname.

"No. Really you don't have to. We'll just outgrow them soon anyway," Ace protested. "You don't need to waste your money."

Suddenly Ace had three division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates glaring down at him.

"It is not a waste of money to make sure that you don't freeze to death," Thatch said in a very deep and slow voice. If he had been saying anything else Ace would have thought it was a death threat.

"And just for that comment we're getting you new pants, shoes, and shirts," Marco said in the same voice.

At that moment Luffy, who had been running around to see his sleeves "fly," stepped on one of them and smacked into the floor face first, breaking the tension.

"You alright Lu," Ace asked. He knew Luffy would be fine, he was rubber, but he really wanted to change the subject.

"Ha ha ha. That was fun."

"Of course it was," Sabo said sarcastically, helping Luffy to his feet making sure that he wasn't still stepping on the sleeves of his coat.

"Alright so shopping first and then playing in the snow," Thatch decided ushering the boys towards the door.

"What's snow," Luffy asked cocking his head to the side.

"It's cold white stuff that falls from the sky," Ace told him.

"Like rain?"

"I think so."

"Oh wow. Please tell me that you have at least seen pictures of snow before," Thatch said.

"Well obviously Ace knows what it is," Namur said.

"Sabo told me."

"I read about it in a book once."

"Well then. You're about to see the real stuff," Marco informed as he picked up Luffy and jumped off the ship, gently putting him down after he landed.

"I-is that snow," Luffy asked looking around the island amazed.

"Yup. All the white stuff is snow. Stay close there are animals that are hiding in it and won't hesitate to attack."

"Really? I wanna see!" The straw hat wearer took off running towards where the snow looked deeper.

"Luffy come back here," Ace shouted chasing after his little brother. It was about ten seconds later that he was lifted off the ground by the hood of his coat.

"Didn't Marco just say to stay close?" Thatch asked.

"I didn't want Luffy to get eaten by anything again," the older brother rationalized his actions.

The man nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm. Good excuse."

He grinned at the pirate.

"Do that again and I'll tie your sleeves together so they won't fly anymore," Marco told Luffy as he carried him back towards the group.

"No don't do that!"

"Then stay next to me."

"Fine."

Three hours the brothers were outfitted with everything they would need for winter fun.

Sabo had a blue coat, he wore a red scarf and gloves. He refused to take off his top hat.

Ace had an orange coat with black gloves and a scarf. He also refused to take off his hat saying that it matched his coat.

Luffy had a red coat and yellow gloves and scarf. He wanted everything to be red but Marco wouldn't let him. No one even bothered trying to buy him a new hat.

And true to their word the pirates had also bought the boys long pants, boots, and long sleeved shirts.

"I want the other coat," Luffy said looking in disappointment at his non flying sleeves.

"I thought red was your favorite color," Marco asked in mock confusion.

"It is!"

"Well then, isn't this coat better?"

The boy thought for a moment before deciding that this coat was indeed better because it was red and not green.

Ace laughed. Marco was getting good at taking care of Luffy. It was nice knowing that there was someone other than him and Sabo that could take care of his little brother if they couldn't do it. Naturally they would still take care of their brother no matter what. But it was still nice know there was someone that could help if needed.

"See isn't that better," Thatch asked Ace as they stepped outside the store.

He had to admit the new coat was a lot warmer than the one he had just been wearing. "Yeah but you still shouldn't have wa- spent your money on us."

"If we hadn't then Pops would have made sure that someone did. He likes you brats and will make sure that you're taken care of," Marco said as he watched Luffy wrapped his arms around one of his legs and sit on his foot so that he wouldn't have to walk. The blonde pirate shrugged but didn't miss a beat.

It was probably better that way. At least they would know when he ran off.

"So now that you won't freeze or get frost bite how would you like to build your first snow man," Thatch asked.

"What's a snow man," Luffy asked excitedly.

"It's a man made out of snow," Namur told him.

"Really?! That's so cool!"

"You shouldn't have said that. Now he's going to expect an actual man made out of snow," Sabo said shaking his head.

"Really?"

"Yup," Ace said.

"It's not a man made out of snow," Marco told the little boy still wrapped around his leg.

Luffy let out a disappointed "Oh."

"It's just snow that is shaped like a man."

"What?"

Marco chuckled. "Don't worry we'll show you when we get to a suitable place for building snow men."

They walked out of town and into a valley, looking for a nice open area that they could have some winter fun. Ace was pretty sure the adults were more excited than they were to play in the snow. "Alright here looks like a good place," Thatch declared once they were about thirty minutes out of town.

"Good for what?"

"Building a snow man of course. Come on I'll show you all how to do it."

The three boys watched as the fearsome pirate made snow man by rolling three big balls of snow and placing one onto of the other, giving him a face with pine cones and pine needles.

"Ta-da!" he presented with a smile. Marco and Namur burst out laughing.

"That has to be the most pathetic excuse for a snow man I've ever seen," Marco said between laughs.

"Shut up! It's fine."

"It's lop-sided," Namur pointed out once he had gained control of himself.

"Just because you two don't know a quality snow man when you see one doesn't mean that Ace, Sabo, and Luffy won't. What do you guys think?"

"Namur's right it's lop-sided," Sabo said his head tilted to the side inspecting it.

"Yeah, it really is," Ace agreed.

"I like him!"

"Thank you Luffy, you're my only friend here." The commander grabbed the seven year old in a hug and then stuck his tongue out at everyone else.

A snowball came from the side at hit him in the back of the head.

"Oi what was that for Marco!?"

"We're having snowball fight," the man informed and threw another snowball, this time at his friend's face.

"You are so going down!" Thatch yelled dropping Luffy and scooping up handful of snow.

The three boys watched as the adults started pelting each other with snow.

"Why would anyone want to get snow thrown in their face," Ace asked cringing at the idea.

"Looks like fun," Luffy said picking up a handful of snow and throwing it at Sabo.

"That wasn't a snowball," Thatch called. "Come on I'll teach you how to make a real snow ball.

"We each get one of the brats on our team," Marco declared suddenly sweeping in and grabbing Luffy from in between his brothers.

"Yeah!" Thatch agreed latching onto Ace and pulling him towards his lop-sided snow man.

Ace was sure that Sabo had been dragged off by Namur at some point as well.

"Alright teammate. Pay attention because I'm about to teach you how to make a snowball." Ace rolled his eyes but nodded. "First you grab snow, then you put it in one hand, and then pack it tight with the other hand." The pirate demonstrated forming the snow into a ball as he explained.

"Now you try."

Ace did as he was told and picked up some snow. He had just been shaping it into a ball when there was a low rumbling sound.

"What was that?"

"I'm not sure." Thatch stopped making snowballs and stood looking around.

"AVALANCHE!" Namur yelled from his position about a hundred feet away.

Thatch's eyes grew wide as he turned and grabbed Ace by the waist and started running. Ace could see Namur carrying Sabo and running far in front of them. He looked around but couldn't see Luffy or Marco anywhere. He really hoped that they were alright because he knew that you can never mess with an avalanche.

The thought had just crossed his mind when he felt Thatch start to fall. His eyes widened as they both fell. He was thrown from his friend's arms and rolled a bit before he was able to stop himself. He sat up looking around. He couldn't stop the panic he felt as he saw a wall of snow coming towards him. That screamed his name but he couldn't worry about him right now. He had to do something. Thinking quickly he looked around a saw a rock that jutted out of the ground that would provide some protection from the snow. Enough so that he wouldn't be crushed anyway.

He prayed he had enough time as he made a mad dash towards the rock.

* * *

**let me know what you think :)  
**


	9. Waiting

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**PLEASE READ!**

**Two things before we start.**

**First, classes just started back up for me so I will have less time that I usually do so I will do my best to get chapters out and respond to reviews. I haven't been able to respond to everyone like I want to :( I will continue to do my best. Unfortunately real life has to come first. I wish it didn't but that's out of my control.**

**Second, so back before the first chapter I mentioned that some of the characters would be OOC. I would just like to remind you all of that because the warning was given partly because of **_**this**_** chapter.**

* * *

**Ch. 9 Waiting**

Sabo had been more than a little surprised when Namur had suddenly yelled avalanche and picked him and started running. He had been even more surprised when the Fishman had actually been able to out run the snow. Once the eighth division commander had stopped he gently put Sabo down so that they both could survey the damage.

Sabo felt his eyes grow wide. There was nothing but snow left. Trees had once dotted the mountain side and now there was nothing.

"Where are Luffy and Ace," he asked numbly. "They were behind us and now there's nothing there. Where are they?" He looked up at Namur pleading with his friend to tell him that his brothers were safe.

"Uh. I'm sure they're fine. They're with Marco and Thatch. They won't let anything happen to your brothers."

At that moment a giant, flaming, blue bird landed next to them. Sabo immediately noticed the small boy clutched in its talons. "Luffy!" he called out relieved beyond measure. He didn't even notice when the bird turned into Marco he was so focused on his brother, who was crying loudly. "What's wrong?"

"Where's Thatch," Namur asked.

"Take them back to the ship," Marco commanded. "Bring back as many men as possible."

"Why?"

"Thatch went down."

"W-what does that mean," Sabo demanded.

"The snow ate Ace," Luffy wailed.

"They were hit by the avalanche?" Namur demanded.

Marco nodded.

"And Luffy saw it happen?" Namur asked sadly.

"We don't have time for this now. Every second counts. Now take them back to the ship I'll start looking. We can worry about how traumatized the kid is later."

"No. I want to help," Sabo protested.

"I wanna help Ace too," the seven-year-old said through his sobs.

"No. It's too dangerous. Back to the ship with the both of you. I promise I won't stop looking for him until he is found"

"You want me to go back to the ship and just wait while you all get to look for Ace? No! He's my brother and I can help. I'm not just some kid-"

"Yes you are! You might act more like an adult than a kid but you are still just a kid. This is dangerous so you are going to act your age, for once, and let the adults handle this!" Marco yelled, looking frustrated.

Sabo stared at the blonde pirate in shock with no idea how to react. All of his life he had been told over and over again to grow up act more mature, take on more responsibility. This was the first time he could remember that someone had told him to act his age and hadn't gotten onto him for acting like a child.

Marco sighed and ran a hand through his hair before kneeling down in front of Sabo placing a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I know you're not just _some kid _and that you are capable of doing things most adults can't. I know you want to help Ace. I know that. I understand that it hurts that I'm not going to let you help look for him. It is too dangerous. I also know that it's scary that your brother is missing because mine is missing too. But right now I can't worry about you and Luffy. I need to take care of Ace and Thatch and I need you to take care of yourself and Luffy. Can you do that?"

Sabo nodded mutely still a little shocked but accepting that he was not going to be allowed to help find Ace. But at least he could take care of Luffy.

Namur picked them both up, one under each arm. "I hope Thatch is okay too," Sabo told Marco sadly.

"Thanks. I'm sure they're both going to be fine."

He nodded at the other pirate and the fishman took off running towards the ship. The journey back to the ship was much quicker than the hike away from it had been and they reached the Moby Dick in little to no time.

Namur put them down. "Go back to your cabin and try to stay warm. We'll come get you when Ace is back."

There was no question about whether or not Ace was going to be back. It made Sabo feel better that he was so confident. Sabo nodded before taking Luffy's hand and dragged the still crying boy towards their room. It was going to be a long day and he really needed his little brother right now.

As he walked back towards the cabin he heard Namur shout, "Oi, all men available! There was an avalanche on the island. Two of our own are buried!"

A few hours later Sabo and Luffy were sitting on the railing of the ship, next to the loading ramp, waiting for any kind of news. Sabo had been able to calm the younger down by saying that Ace would be mad if he found out Luffy thought he was dead. He was able to keep him calm by telling him different stories that he had read when he lived with the nobles and was able to sneak story books into his room at night.

He was about to tell Luffy about Goldie Locks and the three bears when a group of men appeared at the tree line. They appeared to be carrying something. He stood up hopeful that it was something about his brother.

"No! Put me down! I have to go find him!" Sabo was happy and disappointed at the same time to hear Thatch's voice. He and Luffy jumped down hoping that they were going to be able to talk to him.

"Calm down Thatch," Vista said pushing him back so that he was lying down on the makeshift carrier again. "Ace is in good hands. He'll be found in no time. You need to rest. That avalanche did a number on you. There's a chance that you have hypothermia and you definitely have a few cracked ribs and your ankle is messed up. "

"He was my responsibility. I dropped him! If I'm hurt, how bad is he? How the hell could I drop him!?"

"Thatch!" Sabo called as they climbed onto deck. He wanted to ask if they found Ace but it was clear they hadn't and he squashed the desire.

"Oh God. Sabo. Luffy." The man paled, even more so than he already was, when he saw them. "I-I am so sorry." No one tried to push him down again as he sat up leaning on arm. "I-I tried to get to him. I did-"

"Did you try your best to help him?" Sabo interrupted.

"Of course I did."

"Then that's all we can ask. Thank you." It hurt to say. He wanted to yell and scream and blame everything on the man but he didn't cause the avalanche and he tried to protect Ace the best he could. Blaming Thatch would just hurt others and probably himself. Taking a deep breath dulled the ache and he knew that he had meant every word he had said to the pirate. "You should take care of yourself now. We don't need to worry about you too."

For some reason the pirate found this funny. He collapsed onto his back, the heel of his hands digging into his eyes laughing like a mad man. "You hear that Vista the kid's worried about me. He's worried about the idiot who lost his brother. What is up with these kids? They don't act the way they should."

Vista nodded at the men carrying the stretcher and they carried a still hysterical Thatch below deck.

"Is he okay," Luffy asked watching as the men disappeared.

"He's a little out of it right now," the swordsman said looking awkward.

"Why did he say we don't act the way we should," Sabo questioned.

"He was just expecting you to blame him for what happened because he blames himself. I think it would probably make him feel better if you were mad because then he wouldn't have to be mad at himself."

"Grown-ups are weird."

Sabo chuckled turning to his little brother. "I agree with you there Luffy. Do you want to go see if Doctor Lyra will let us visit Thatch once he's feeling less crazy?"

"Yes!"

"Then let's go."

"You're oddly calm about the situation," Vista noted as he walked with them.

"Well you all found Thatch so that means that there is hope for Ace and at this point I am just going with no news is good news." He looked up at the swordsman for confirmation. "Right?"

The man smiled kindly. "Right."

They arrived in front of the infirmary as the men that were carrying the stretcher were kicked out.

"Demon witch, we just wanted to make sure he'd be okay," one mumbled but the two boys heard it anyway.

"We're going to leave now. Will you be alright," Vista asked Sabo. "Everyone, except a few look outs, is working on finding Ace. I could find you something to eat before heading back."

"Not hungry," Luffy said sliding down the wall and landing with a soft thump.

"I don't think either of us could eat right now," the blonde said sitting next to his brother putting an arm around him and pulling him into his side. "We'll just wait here until a nurse comes out and we can ask if Thatch is ready for visitors."

"If you're sure, we're all going to head back."

"Good. The more people looking for Ace the better," Sabo said his voice cracking on the last world. What if they didn't find Ace in time? What if he never saw his brother again? This was almost as bad as the fire. The only thing that made it slightly better was knowing that at least Luffy was safe.

He bit his lip trying to stop the tears he knew were about to come.

He didn't want to cry.

Not now when there were ten other people around to watch him.

He hated crying.

Ace was going to make fun of him if he did.

He felt the tear start falling.

Luffy's arms were slowly inching around him going further than what would be considered physically possible. "Luffy don't." he scolded. The last thing they needed was for Vista and the others to find out about Luffy's powers right now. He didn't feel like dealing with everyone's reactions at the moment.

The arms disappeared. He looked down at his little brother as he felt him scoot away. That's not what he wanted at all. His grip tightened on his brother's arm and he pulled Luffy onto his lap wrapping his arms tightly around the smaller boy. He knocked Luffy's hat off so that it was now hanging from the string around his neck and buried his face in his brother's hair letting out a sob, embarrassed that he hadn't been able to stop it.

"Sabo," Luffy questioned, voice shaking.

He was unable to respond and just sobbed harder as he felt the two small arms wrap tightly around him holding on the back of his coat. He allowed himself to cry for a few minutes before taking a few deep breaths to calm himself. He pulled away from Luffy and gave him a shaky smile when he noticed his brother was crying now. "Sorry about that."

"Sabo," Luffy said again. The blonde didn't respond. He just tucked his brother's head under his chin and squeezed him tightly. "Don't worry. Ace won't die. He promised."

Sabo blinked. When had Ace promised not to die?

"We're going to find him," Vista said determination in his eyes.

"I know you will. I just don't know in what condition he'll be in when you do." Try as he might he couldn't stop the second round of tears. "It seems that every time we're actually happy something horrible happens. It's like we're not allowed to be happy and when we are we're punished." He was sobbing again by this point. He felt a large hand squeeze his shoulder offering comfort. The blonde looked up to see the commander kneeling next to him.

"Sabo. Things just happen. There was nothing you or anyone else could have done to stop that avalanche," the swordsman said. "You're not being punished for being happy or anything like that. It's a good thing that you're happy here. We're glad to hear that and we'll do everything in our power to make sure that you all stay that way."

"Please find Ace," Luffy pleaded when Sabo didn't respond. "We can't be happy if he's not here."

The commander smiled at the two boys before standing and turning towards the men that had helped him carry Thatch back. "Alright men, let's get back to the search. No one stops until Ace is found," Vista commanded and the pirates with new determination left the two boys in the hallway. Just the two of them, and Sabo allowed himself to cry until he fell into an uncomfortable sleep.

* * *

Sabo rubbed his eyes, frowning at how much they hurt.

He really hated crying.

He looked down at Luffy and noticed that he was asleep. He sighed and rested his head against the wall giving his brother a tight squeeze. He didn't know how long it had been since Vista and the others had left but knew it had been a while. Would Doctor Lyra let him and Luffy in to see Thatch now?

He tensed up as he heard footsteps above them signaling that someone was on deck, with all the noise he guessed that there were quite a few people on deck.

Did they just get back or had it been a long time and they just didn't want to come talk to them because they hadn't been able to find Ace? He was terrified to know.

He turned as he heard footsteps coming towards them. His heart stopped as he saw Namur and Vista coming towards them talking in low voices. He shook Luffy to wake him up as Namur nodded and the two commanders turned towards them.

"I didn't think you'd still be here," Vista said surprised looking down at them.

"I fell asleep," Luffy said before smiling sheepishly at Sabo.

"So did I," Sabo said with a wobbly smile. He wished they would tell him about Ace. He didn't want to have to ask.

"Sabo," Namur said softly. This was it. They were going to tell him that his brother was dead. He looked up to see the fishman smiling at him. "It's alright. We found Ace. He's fine, in better condition than Thatch even. We were all actually looking for you two."

Both boys jumped up. "He's alright? Where is he?"

Vista nodded towards the deck and that was all the prompting Sabo needed before he took off running, Luffy right behind him. They burst onto the deck and instantly heard a familiar voice calling. "SABO, LUFFY, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"ACE!" the both screamed at the same time. There was the sound of hurried footsteps and then he was there standing in front of them. Sabo was going to cry again if he didn't watch himself.

Luffy tackled Ace to the floor in a hug laughing as he did so. "Ace is back," he sang happily.

Sabo didn't even think before joining them and creating a three way hug laughing the entire time.

"Did you miss me or something," Ace asked grinning from ear to ear.

"Yes," Luffy answered.

"Don't you ever do something like that again," Sabo yelled. "I'm used to worrying about Luffy in that way but not you. You do stupid things that can get you killed, Luffy is the one who gets lost and eaten by things!"

"Eaten? I didn't get eaten."

"The snow ate Ace," Luffy said seriously.

"Snow can't eat people, stupid," Ace said rolling his eyes pushing his brothers off and standing up.

"Yes it can!" Luffy exclaimed jumping up.

Sabo stood and couldn't help the ridiculous grin that spread across his face. "How did you survive?"

"I found a big rock that had a ledge that I sat under. It blocked the snow from crushing me and it even left enough room for me to breathe okay until Marco found me."

"Marco found you?" Luffy asked looking happier than ever.

"Yup," Ace said with a laugh.

"Oi," the pirate in question walked up to them. "There you are. Vista told me you two haven't eaten since breakfast. Seeing as its late you will eat dinner and the straight to bed. Ace now that you've seen your brothers you have to go see Lyra, she needs to look over you to make sure that the exposure to the cold didn't do any damage. We've all had a stressful day so please don't argue with me."

Luffy jumped onto the first commander hugging him around the middle. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

"It's just dinner."

Sabo joined Luffy in hugging the man. "You found Ace," he clarified.

"No need to thank me for that," Marco said patting both of them on the head. "I found him because I wanted him to be safe."

Sabo felt his grin widen. The pirate had no idea how good he had just made Ace feel. The idiot was always wondering if people wanted him dead or not and here Marco just said that not only did he want him alive but he wanted him safe too.

"Thank you for keeping your promise," Sabo mumbled.

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

* * *

**So I know that Sabo probably wouldn't really react like that. But, in my mind one of the few things that can make Ace and Sabo cry and act like children is the other or Luffy being put into danger and not being able, or allowed, to do anything about it. Oh well. And about the thing about them being punished whenever they're happy, it kind of seems that every time the trio gets comfortable in a situation something comes along to change it. When they are comfortable with the bandits Garp comes along and beats them, scared for their lives they run away. When they are living in the tree house they're fine for a while then Sabo's dad comes and takes him away. In my story once they are comfortable again Garp comes along and just picks them up and puts them with a bunch of people they don't know who are potentially dangerous. **

**Oh well. Thanks for reading :) Let me know what you think. **


	10. Nightmares and Devil Fruits

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**I have over 200 reviews! and over 280 followers! I'm so excited! *Dancing around the room ignoring the strange looks from her roommates.***

***cough* Anyway...**

**Sorry this is not the chapter that the crew finds out about Luffy's powers. But it will happen. Soonish. **

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**Ch. 10 Nightmares and Devil Fruits  
**

Luffy shot up holding back a scream trying to banish the images of Ace being swallowed up in the snow again. He bit his lip trying to muffle the sound of his cries.

Seeing Ace buried in all that snow had been one of the scariest moments of his life and now he was having to relive it every night since they had left the cold island. He squeezed his eyes shut hoping to stop the tears, but it was no use. He quickly grabbed his pillow and pushed his face into it making his cries almost silent.

Every night for the past two weeks he had terrible nightmares about snow eating Ace, sometimes literally. His brothers had been supportive and caring in the beginning but over the past few nights he could tell that they were getting tired of him. Which is why he had been as quiet as possible when he woke up, hoping to not awaken his brothers. He had been successful the past two nights and it would seem tonight as well.

He looked up at the bed where both Ace and Sabo were sleeping soundly, not bothered with images of evil snow. He desperately wanted to crawl into bed and curl up in between them, in his usual spot, but he wouldn't wake them up again. He rearranged his blankets until he decided they were comfortable and laid down, staring at the ceiling, clutching his pillow to his chest.

Tonight his nightmare had been one of the worst, instead of just Ace the snow also got Sabo and Thatch. Marco had tried to save them but the snow ate him too. Luffy almost started crying again just thinking about it.

He shook his head and started to think about Shanks instead. Shanks was always fun to play with and so Luffy would just remember some of the adventures he had had with the red haired man. He felt himself smile thinking about the time that he and Shanks had snuck into an apple orchard and gathered as many as they could carry and spent the rest of the day eating them while Shanks told him stories about being a pirate. That had been a really good day.

He slowly drifted off to sleep with a smile on his face.

The next morning at breakfast he sat on a bench yawning next to Sabo and across from Ace and Namur. He was really, really tired. Stupid Shanks. Thinking about him made him dream about Sea monsters and one that was big enough to eat the Moby Dick. He whimpered at the thought.

"What's wrong Lu?" Sabo asked looking concerned.

"Uh, nothin'," he said looking down at his plate stabbing at his egg and bringing the piece that broke off to his mouth.

"Hey guys what's up?" Thatch asked as he joined them, holding his ribs as he sat down to ward of some of the pain he was still in as he sat next to Ace. The man hadn't talked to them for four days after the incident, Luffy still didn't know why, but he started hanging out with them after Marco talked to him which was good because Ace really liked Thatch.

"Something's wrong with Luffy and he doesn't want to tell us what it is," Ace answered glaring at the youngest.

Sabo's eyes narrowed. "You had another nightmare didn't you?"

"N-no."

"Nightmares?" Thatch asked looking at the boy in concern.

"He's been having them since the avalanche. And you're a terrible liar Luffy," Ace said looking unamused.

"I'm not having nightmares honest. It's not like I dreamed about snow eating people again," he said looking around to see if anyone noticed his lie.

"Wow he really is a terrible liar," Thatch stated in mild surprise.

"Luffy couldn't lie to save his life," Ace said.

"Ain't that the truth," Sabo mumbled before letting out a sigh. "Luffy if you had a nightmare last night then why didn't you wake one of us up?"

"You were getting tired of me waking up so I _stopped_ waking you up," Luffy said, disappointed that he was found out.

"Wait, your still having nightmares and you're solution was to just stop waking us up?"

Luffy thought for a moment of how to answer that. Finally he settled for a simple nod of his head and a, "Yes."

This caused the other two boys to groan. "How much sleep did you get last night?" Ace asked.

"I dunno."

"Great. Now he's going to be whiney and cranky all day," Sabo complained.

Luffy looked down. He didn't want his brothers to be mad at him. That's why he didn't wake them up but they were still mad at him. It seemed like he couldn't do anything right. He rubbed at his eyes hoping to stop the tears that he felt coming.

He completely missed the looks of concern he got.

"Hey Luffy how about me and you find a game to play while your big brothers finish their chores?" Thatch asked in an excited whisper.

Luffy shook his head. He liked playing games but for some reason he didn't want to. "I have to help with the chores."

"It's okay, we'll take care of it," Sabo said. "You can go play."

"I don' wanna play," he mumbled.

"Fine then," Sabo sighed. "Just finish your breakfast maybe you can take a little nap or something to make you less cranky."

Luffy looked at his plate that was still half full. For some reason he just wasn't hungry anymore. "Ace do you want the rest of my eggs and pancakes? I'm not hungry anymore."

The fork that had been halfway to Ace's mouth dropped out of his hand and Sabo spit his juice out across the table. Both turned to look at him in surprise. Sabo's hand was on his forehead. "You're not sick again are you?"

"No." he shook the hand off. "I'm just not hungry. And I don't want to play." He put his arms on the table and laid his head down on them. "Do you want my food or not?"

Ace and Sabo traded anxious looks. Two of the things that defined Luffy was that he liked to play and was always hungry. The other was the fact that he wanted to be king of the pirates.

"Yeah, I'll take it," Ace agreed hesitantly grabbing the plate and digging in. Ace never turned down food.

* * *

Five minutes after Luffy put his head down he was asleep.

"Is he alright?" Marco asked joining them, nodding towards the wanna be pirate king.

"He's been having nightmares," Sabo informed.

"How bad are they?" Thatch asked looking down at the little boy.

"Apparently worse than we thought," Sabo said looking sad. "We thought they stopped a few nights ago when he stopped waking us up."

"I guess I shouldn'na yelled at him," Ace said looking guilty. "I thought he was just being a crybaby again and told him that I was fine and to stop crying about it."

"Ace we thought you died. We didn't ever say it or anything but we both thought that we weren't going to see you again." Sabo said quietly. "Remember what it was like for you after my ship was blown up?"

What?

Thatch felt his eyes widen. Sabo had been on a ship that had been blown up? He traded shocked looks with Marco.

"Don't remind me," Ace said with a shiver.

"Remember how clingy Luffy was after all that?"

The brunette nodded looking sad.

"Well I'm guessing we should expect that from him again."

Thatch really wanted to ask about the ship but he held back. They probably wouldn't really appreciate him asking.

"He had nightmares back then too," Ace said thoughtfully. "I didn't really mind him waking me up because I had them too."

"Then you should be more sympathetic," Sabo stated.

"Well it's not like anyone told you guys that I was dead, so why is he freaking out?" Ace demanded.

"He saw it Ace," Marco said looking down at the freckled boy. "I knew that I wouldn't be able to out run the snow so I transformed into my phoenix form and I picked him up and we flew. He was looking down and he saw you. When he started screaming and crying for you I knew what had happened."

"W-what? He saw when the snow hit me? Why didn't anyone say something? At least then I would have been expecting the nightmares."

Just then a small distressed sound left the sleeping boy. Sabo let out a worried sigh and shook him awake.

"Sabo? W-wha?"

"You were having another nightmare."

"Oh. 'M sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Ace said climbing over the table, ignoring Marco's reprimands. He sat on the bench next to Luffy and hugged him tightly. "We just want you to not have nightmares anymore. You're not sleeping like you should."

"I tried not having them," Luffy said in an apologetic voice.

"We know you did," Sabo said joining the hug. Luffy's face broke out in its usual grin at his brothers' actions.

"Come on we have our chores to do," Ace said breaking out of the hug looking slightly embarrassed. "Luffy you can just watch since you're so tired."

"Actually," Marco cut in. "I was wondering if he wanted to keep me company as I did some work today. It won't be all that fun, but maybe you could draw or something."

"No I don't wanna."

Marco frowned before smiling thoughtfully. He bent down and whispered something into Luffy's ear.

"Really?!" The boy asked excitedly jumping up onto the bench.

"Yup."

"I changed my mind I wanna go with Marco." Luffy looked at Ace, asking permission.

"If he gets to be too much of handful send him back," Ace told the commander.

"I think I can handle it," Marco said with a chuckle. He reached down and picked up the small boy.

"I wonder what got him so excited," Ace said as they watched the two walk out.

"Yeah, Marco doing work is not all that interesting," Sabo agreed.

"Oi commander we got to go!" a voice of one of the men from his division called to Thatch.

"Right, be there in a few minutes!" he called back with a wave of his hand.

"Where are you going," Sabo asked.

"Pops is sending me on a mission. I should be back late tonight or early tomorrow morning at the latest."

"Have fun," Ace said smiling.

"I'll try," Thatch laughed standing up gritting his teeth at the pain any sort of movement caused, it was bearable at least. He walked across deck and bid farewell to Pops before boarding the smaller ship that had been set aside for his mission. It wouldn't be that hard and he was hoping that he would actually be back sometime that afternoon.

Marco smiled as he watched Luffy literally bounce around his room. Normally he wouldn't have allowed it, but the poor kid was just so down and for some reason the boy said that his brothers insisted that he keep his powers a secret from everyone, even those on the ship. Luffy said it was something about Garp being mad about something.

He had to wonder when the last time Luffy had been allowed to stretch as much as he wanted. Marco knew how hard it must have been. Once you ate a devil fruit it became a part of you. To deny it was difficult and even sometimes painful. Marco had to transform at least a little each day just to feel right.

He laughed as Luffy grabbed onto the end of his bed from across the room and sent himself flying into the wall landing with a smack. He would have been concerned but the boy had burst out laughing after he landed on the ground.

"Having fun?" the pirate asked. He wasn't going to get any work done while he had a rubber boy bouncing around his room so he might as well chat with him.

"Uh huh. Thanks for letting me stretch in here. I really missed it."

"I know what you mean. It's hard not to use your powers huh?"

"Yeah." A hand stretched out grabbing the end of his desk, as the limb shrunk the boy came sliding across the room, giggling, towards him.

"Sometimes I forget that I'm not supposed to use them and Ace and Sabo get really mad, even though no one ever notices," he said sadly. "I wish that I could stretch when I wanted."

Marco wished he could too. But if he encouraged Luffy to and the other two found out, they'd be after Marco's head. And he was pretty sure if they tried hard enough, those two just might get it.

They'd probably use Luffy as a distraction.

He shook his head clearing his mind of murderous over-protective older brothers.

Two sets of fingers appeared at the end of his desk followed by a little face looking up at him curiously. "Hey Marco?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think being rubber is a stupid power?" He cocked his head to the side.

"Do you?" Marco imitated the little one's actions.

"No I think it's neat."

"Then that's all that matters."

"Ace says it's stupid," he pouted.

"Well I'm sure that's just Ace being Ace and he actually think they're really cool. He just doesn't want you to know that."

"Do you really think so?"

"Yup."

Marco could tell that Luffy was just excited to tell someone about his powers as he grinned. "Did you know that you can hit me and it doesn't hurt?"

"No I didn't know that, but you should probably still avoid getting hit." Marco was sure that nobody on board would stand for Luffy getting hit by anyone or anything. Even if it didn't hurt him.

Luffy just giggled as he shot across the room again.

Marco shook his head at the little boy's antics still smiling.

A knock sounded through the room and Luffy, who had been about to grab onto the bed and shoot across the room again retracted his arm looking disappointed.

Marco waited until the limb was its normal size before calling, "Come in."

Two faces appeared. "Hey Marco. We came to get Luffy for lunch," Sabo said peering into the room curiously and the commander realized they had never actually been in his quarters before. He had invited Luffy in multiple times whenever Namur and Thatch had the other two occupied with things and Luffy was left alone. They probably had to ask around to even find out which cabin was his.

"Food!" Luffy cheered tackling the blond out of the doorway. Ace had been smart enough to step aside.

"I see you're feeling better," Sabo smiled pushing Luffy off of him.

"Yeah! Marco's the best," Luffy smiled.

"So what'd you do," Ace asked.

"Just played."

Marco raised an eyebrow. So the brat hadn't told his brothers that he knew about his powers yet.

"So you feel like playing now?" Sabo asked looking happy.

"Yup. Now food!"

Ace and Sabo both smiled and nodded. "Bye Marco thanks for watching him," Ace said waving as he left.

"I don't know what you did but thank you for making him feel better," Sabo thanked with a bow.

"I didn't do anything," the man said. He really hadn't.

The blonde boy closed the door behind him as he left.

Marco shook his head fondly. The brats were really growing on him.

He looked down at his desk and saw the mountain of paper work that was waiting for him. "Nope not happening." He said standing up and making his way outside. The brats needed someone to watch them with Thatch away on that mission and Namur busy training with a new recruit in his division. And the brats were a lot more fun than paperwork that could probably wait until tomorrow.

* * *

Thatch smiled as he climbed onto the deck of the Moby Dick. The mission had gone perfectly. They were able to destroy the enemy ship that had been attacking one of the islands under Pops' protection in less than an hour and he had found a rare treasure on the ship.

"Thatch. Welcome back. That was fast." He turned to see Marco leaning against the wall opposite of him. Ace and Sabo ran up to him.

"What were you doing?" Sabo asked.

"Did you fight someone?" Ace demanded.

"Did you win?" the blonde asked.

Thatch laughed as the questions were fired at him. "There were some pirates bothering one of the Island Pops guards. We took them out and I found something really cool," he told them excitedly looking around for the small bouncy brat hoping that he would be feeling better. He found him clinging to Marco's leg looking terrified at something that was behind Thatch.

"I thought that your ribs and ankle would slow you down a bit," Teach greeted from where he was eating a cherry pie, sitting on deck a few feet away.

That would explain Luffy's behavior. For some reason that no one understood the boy was terrified of Teach.

"Nope. My ankle has been better for a while now. My ribs aren't that bad anymore," Thatch said with a smile turning back to heave the chest the contained his treasure in it. "You'll never guess what I found," he said in a sing song voice. "Hey Luffy come here. I bet you've never seen one of these before and you should check it out."

After some encouragement from Marco the little boy shuffled towards him casting glances at Teach, as if expecting the man to jump up and grab him at any moment. Thatch wished that the man would just leave. He wanted to make sure Luffy was alright, after all it was his fault that the poor kid was having nightmares and the brat wouldn't act like himself if the larger pirate was around. But it would be rude to ask Teach to leave so he would just try to distract the boy from the man.

"What'd you find?" Ace asked looking excited.

Thatch threw open the chest and was disappointed when he didn't get the reaction of awe he had been expecting.

"It's a fruit," Ace said let down.

"A weird looking fruit," Sabo added.

"This isn't _just_ a weird looking fruit, it's a devil fruit."

"Don't eat it. It tastes gross," Luffy said sticking out his tongue.

Thatch shot him a confused look wondering at the comment. Ace and Sabo both stiffened and turned to Luffy with looks that Thatch couldn't quite read.

"You found one?" Marco asked looking excited. Finally an appropriate response. He was either going to get some sort of power or a lot of money. Someone should be excited for him.

He pulled it out of the chest and held it up so that everyone could see it. "I don't know what kind it is yet. I think I want to find out before I decide if I'm going to eat it. I want to make sure that it's worth becoming an anchor like Marco here."

He was too busy showing off his prize to notice the slowly growing smirk on the face of the large man sitting behind him. He didn't notice as the man slowly approached him from behind and rise an arm. "Congratulations Thatch," Teach said slapping him on the back. "Let us know when you decide if you're going to eat it or not."

"Will do."

"Hurry and put that thing away," Marco commanded. "Navigation says that there is a storm coming tonight and we have to get ready because it's supposed to be really big."

"You're no fun," the man pouted before sighing dramatically. "I guess I'll put it away."

* * *

…**.So yeah. **

**Tell me what you think :)**


	11. Betrayal

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

**So, I wasn't going to post this until Monday or Tuesday but you all responded in just the way I was aiming for and it made me just wanted to post this tonight. So enjoy :D**

**OOC warning.  
**

**Oh, not that it's important but, I do use the English names for the devil fruits in this story… The Japanese names are so much cooler sounding but I feel like I don't know enough of the language to use it.**

* * *

**Ch. 11 Betrayal**

Thatch laid in bed listening to the thunderstorm raging around the Moby Dick. He could feel the ship rocking back and forth and could only imagine how huge the waves outside were. He was thankful that, as a commander, he was never expected to have to take a look out shift.

He truly felt sorry for the poor souls that had to be out in this whether.

He turned on his side and saw the chest sitting on his desk. He still wasn't positive what fruit lay inside but he had talked to a few guys in the ninth division that had researched the different types of fruits and they were pretty sure that this one held the power of darkness.

He was sure that if that were the case he didn't want to eat it.

The Dark-Dark fruit.

It just sounded ominous.

The research guys said that if it were that particular fruit then he would be able to absorb things if he ate it. There were also a few rumors that, the Dark-Dark fruit had the power to absorb and stop other devil fruits. If that were the case he didn't want that kind of power falling into the wrong hands and being used against them.

"Maybe I should talk to Pops about it?" he wondered out loud. He had a bad feeling about it. The more he thought about the stupid thing the more he wished that he had just thrown it into the ocean. Just looking at the chest was giving him the heebie-jeebies.

He jolted when there was a knock at the door.

He got up wondering who would be out of their cabin at this time of night. He opened the door to reveal Teach.

"Sorry to bother you commander, but I wanted to ask you a something."

He scowled. "It's past midnight Teach."

"I know. I'm afraid it couldn't wait."

Thatch sighed and ran a hand through his hair before gesturing the man in. "Alight then. Come in I guess. What can I help you with?"

The man came into the room and idly pushed the door closed. Thatch noticed with a frown that it was still slightly open. He hopped that it wouldn't let in too much water.

"Well I was wondering what you were going to do about that fruit you found."

Thatch shook his head in disbelief. It was late and he wanted to go to sleep. "Teach, this can wait until morning. Don't you have watch tonight?"

"Yeah. I offered to walk around the ship so that the other guys could get out of the rain."

"Then why aren't you on watch if you're the only one? Go do your job."

Teach grinned at him. "Well." He took a step forward so that he was now in Thatch's personal space. The pirate wondered idly if Teach had always been that big. "I was wondering what you were going to do about that fruit you found." He repeated and laughed.

Before Thatch could respond Teach punched him in the ribs.

His already damaged ribs.

He heard a sickening crack he was now sure that his ribs were now fully broken.

Since when was Teach that strong?

He bent over trying to ward of the pain, gasping desperately for breath. Something was really wrong. He couldn't seem to breathe right. He looked up to see Teach still grinning with a look in his eyes that made Thatch sure that the man was going to murder him and that he was going to enjoy doing it.

It was then he noticed the knife.

Thatch rolled to the right trying to avoid the blow. He gasped in pain when the knife struck his back. Teach tore the knife out and kicked him down so that he was lying on the floor, gasping in pain. Teach laughed as he stomped on the wound before turning towards the chest that was still sitting on the desk. He grabbed it before turning back with a smirk. "Thank you commander. I can assure you that this won't go to waste." He left closing the door behind him.

Thatch wanted to scream. To yell. To hit the bastard his damn smug face. But he couldn't move. He couldn't even breathe properly.

It was then that Thatch started praying to every deity that he had ever heard of, none of which he really believed in, that someone, anyone, would find him before it was too late.

He didn't want to die.

As his vision grew blurry he heard more than saw his door burst open and in ran three small figures. He was able to make out three very familiar, very young faces staring at him.

Oh God. Please not them. Anyone but them.

He didn't want them to see this.

Luffy was going to have more nightmares.

* * *

Ace and Sabo were startled awake by a sound of distress. It wouldn't have woken them if they hadn't been expecting and waiting for it. Finding out that Luffy had stopped coming to them about his dreams was a distressing thought for both of them. Learning that Luffy had purposely slept on the floor as to not bother them was downright unacceptable.

He had tried to settle on the floor again that night but Ace and Sabo weren't going to put up with that. He had been firmly pushed onto the bed and then sandwiched between the two older boys so that they would notice when he was upset. They were determined to make sure that Luffy slept most of the night and this was the best way they could think of how to do it.

They both sat up quickly, Sabo grabbing Luffy's arm and shaking him awake. "Luffy you're having another nightmare."

"Sorry," he mumbled when he woke up enough to do so.

"It's alright," Ace reassured. He had felt really guilty about yelling at Luffy about his nightmares now that he knew that Luffy had actually seen when the snow covered him. He would have been terrified had their positions been switched.

"Was it the snow or the monster this time?" Sabo asked bringing his little brother into a comforting hug.

"Monster," Luffy said quietly burrowing into Sabo's arms. "It was big and dark and had a scary laugh. It ate Thatch."

Sabo looked at Ace. That was new dream. In the past two weeks they have heard everything from snow eating people, a snow monster eating them, a monster eating Shanks, among other things but they hadn't heard of a _dark_ monster eating Thatch yet.

"We have to go see him!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Lu, it's late. We can see him in the morning," Ace said trying to push Luffy back into bed.

"No," Luffy pushed his brothers away and stood by the door. "I'm going to see Thatch right now. I've decided."

"There's a really big storm right now Lu," Sabo said. "If we go out we might be washed off deck and Thatch's room is on the other side of the ship."

"I'm going. You stay here." He opened the door only to have it slammed shut and to be dragged away from it.

"We're not going to let you go out in this alone," Sabo said and sighed when Luffy looked at him with his determined look that meant that he wouldn't change his mind no matter what.

"If you're going then at least put on some shoes," Ace demanded holding out his sandals.

"Right." He did as requested and soon his brothers were ready to go as well.

"Since we're going out in this, you stay in the middle so that if a wave comes it won't carry you away," Sabo told Luffy.

The boy agreed and soon they were making their way across the ship and towards the fourth division commander's room. They ran close together keeping each other up right. A massive wave crashed into the deck threw them into a wall, but they kept going. Ace and Sabo both knew that they should probably turn back, especially after the wave, but for some reason the need to see Thatch grew with each passing second.

"Zehahahah." Luffy stopped just as they reached the cabin.

"That sounded like the laugh from the monster," he hissed quietly.

Ace's face scrunched up in confusion when he noticed the door open slightly. He traded a look with his brothers before all three, with stealth they had learned while hunting creatures a hundred times their size, snuck up to the door. All three watched in horror as none other than Teach punched their friend in the chest.

Sabo winced at the crack he had heard when the fist connected.

Thatch was now bent over having trouble breathing. The large man didn't waste any time. With a look that Ace hadn't seen since he had been in the fire with Bluejam Teach drew a knife from his waist band and brought it down into the other man's back.

Ace got ready to jump into action but Sabo grabbed his arms and Luffy wrapped himself around his legs. "Let go," he hissed.

"This is the New World. Thatch is a thousand times stronger than you and Teach just beat him," Sabo hissed back. "You go in there and you will die. We can help Thatch after Teach leaves. But we have to be alive to help him and if we try to fight we won't be able to help anyone."

Ace growled but didn't fight against the arms holding him back as the watched as Teach stomped on their friend's now wounded back, laughing again.

The pirate walked away from the commander and said something they couldn't quite make out.

Sabo's eyes widened realizing that Teach was about to leave the room. He quickly pulled his brothers away from the door and around the corner and pushed both his brothers against the wall, covering their mouths so they wouldn't make any noise. This man was dangerous and wouldn't hesitate to kill them.

He had just murdered someone he had supposedly been friends with for years.

What were three kids to him?

Sabo grew tense as the man walked right past them carrying the chest Sabo knew had the fruit that Thatch had been so excited about and a large bag. Luffy and Ace pulled him closer to them and all three dropped to the ground trying to become as small as possible so they wouldn't be noticed, each not daring to breathe.

They watched tensely as the hulking man quickly loaded a boat, climbed in, and then lowered it into the ocean. Not wasting any more time they ran back to the room and pushed open the door flying into the room only to stop and stare in horror. It was so much worse up close. Sabo was vaguely aware that the man was breathing and so he was still alive.

"Thatch?" Ace called in a shaky voice. His friend, his best friend, was lying there starring up at them. He was bleeding, a lot, gosh there was a lot of blood, and was shaking his head before he passed out.

Luffy was the first one to move. He wasn't sure what to do so he just fell to his knees ignoring the growing pool of blood and started shaking the man calling his name.

This caused the other two to jump into action.

"Luffy stop! We don't know how hurt he is. If you shake him you might make it worse," Sabo said urgently. "We need to stop the bleeding. Ace put pressure on the wound."

"Right," Ace said covering the wound with his hands.

"With the blanket!" Sabo yelled. The blanket would do better at stopping the blood than Ace's hand could. "Just move." The blonde pushed both brunettes away from the man and grabbed a blanket. Bunching it up, he put it on the wound and leaned against it with all his body weight. He really didn't know what to do next.

They needed help.

"Ace go get the doctor or a nurse or something!"

"Right." Without hesitation Ace ran out the door.

"Luffy go get one of the commanders," he demanded.

"What?"

"Marco! Go get Marco!"

Luffy nodded once before running out the door and around the ship towards Marco's room.

Sabo was right if anyone could help then Marco could.

He was running so fast he didn't have time to stop himself and he smacked into the door and was bounced back. He shook his head before sliding up to the door and pounding on it.

* * *

Marco had had a peaceful night despite the storm that was going on outside. He actually worked on some of the work he had put off earlier that day in favor of hanging out with the trio of brats on board. It had been fun.

He had even gotten to go to bed early and was having a _very_ nice dream about a curvy blonde when a loud thump interrupted his dream.

He blinked wondering what that noise was. He looked around looking for the source of the noise. Someone started pounding on his door. He sat up confused. No one came and knocked on his door this late. Not even when they were under attack. He was generally left alone when he found time to actually sleep. It was a little annoying on the one night he had been able to get to bed early someone was trying to ruin it.

"MARCO! HELP! MARCO! MARCO!"

He stumbled out of bed and towards the door.

That was Luffy.

Luffy was at his door after midnight screaming his lungs out for help.

Thoughts of the last time one of the brats had woken someone up in the night passed through his mind.

Were Ace and Sabo okay?

He threw open the door and looked down. His heart stopped at the sight. There was sweet, innocent, happy little Luffy completely soaking wet, hands and knees covered in blood, and tears running down his face.

He fell to his knees frantically checking the child for any injuries. "What happened? Are you okay? Where are Ace and Sabo?" he demanded.

"Marco! Thatch is hurt! He needs help right now!"

"Thatch? Where is he?"

"In his room."

Confused about what was going on the commander scooped the boy into his arms and, ignoring the various crew members that were now exiting their cabins and looking on curiously he ran towards his brother's room. When he arrived he felt his heart stop for a second time.

Lyra was there with two nurses working furiously yelling out orders and getting ready to move Thatch.

He put Luffy on the ground before turning fully to the doctor. "What's going on?"

Alice, one of the nurses responded. "We're not sure. Ace said that Thatch was attacked and stabbed. We think one of his lungs was punctured. We need to perform surgery right away to repair it. Move." Marco was pushed out of the way by the other nurse and Thatch was carried out of the room and towards the infirmary.

"Marco, what's happening?" He turned to see the remaining commanders staring at him questioningly. Vista was standing in front of the others looking as confused as Marco felt. "Half the ship was woken up by Luffy and the other half by Ace."

"Thatch was attacked. He's going into surgery right now. That's all I know," he said shaking his head numbly. He couldn't believe it.

Thatch had been attacked while on the Moby Dick. The very idea seemed inconceivable.

One of his brothers had been attacked while he was home.

"Who would attack us in the middle of this storm?" Haruta asked angrily.

"I don't know." Marco heard himself say wondering who would be brave enough to sneak on their ship and attack their family. "Who's on watch? Maybe they saw something."

"Riley's on watch," Jozu informed. "So is Nathen and-"

"It was Teach," a quiet voice broke the conversation.

All the commanders turned their attention towards Ace who was now standing in the doorway. His hands were in fists. He was shaking and looked as if he were barely holding in his anger. Marco noticed that he too was covered in blood.

"Ace, that is a serious accusation," Izo said. "One that you shouldn't say unless you're absolutely sure."

"We saw him," Sabo said joining Ace. "He loaded up a boat with a big bag and he had the fruit that Thatch found."

"What are you doing here anyway?" Vista asked.

"Luffy had a nightmare about Thatch getting eaten by a monster and wanted to see him. He wouldn't take no for an answer," Sabo shrugged. "So we came and saw Teach on the way."

Marco narrowed his eyes. There was something that brats weren't telling them. Weather on purpose or out of shock he couldn't tell.

"What's going on?" a deep voice demanded. All the commanders turned to see their captain.

Marco stepped up. "Thatch was attacked. We have reason to believe that it was Marshall D. Teach of the second division that did it."

"That is a serious accusation. What evidence do you have?"

"Ace and Sabo claimed to see him fleeing the ship with the devil fruit that Thatch found earlier today."

Haruta came out of the room. "His fruit is gone," she confirmed

"Is Thatch alright?"

"As of now he's still alive," Marco said. "Lyra is getting ready to perform surgery on him."

"Very well. Ace, Sabo, Luffy." The three boys shuffled up to the giant man. "Are you positive you saw Teach leaving?"

"Yes sir," Ace answered for them not an ounce of hesitation or uncertainty in his voice.

"Izo."

"Yes Pops?"

"Get them cleaned up and bring them to my room. The rest of you I want you to do a head count I want names of everyone not on board. Make sure nobody else is hurt. If Teach is indeed missing then it is safe to assume that he is the one that attacked your brother. If Thatch recovers he will be able to confirm or deny this. Get to work."

* * *

**Let me know what you think XD**


	12. Aftermath

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited :)**

* * *

**Ch. 12 Aftermath**

Luffy silently followed Izo's as the man ushered them into a room with a big bath tub. "You three get cleaned up. I'm going to go find some knew cloths for you. You can just leave those here someone will clean them for you. Or burn them." The last sentence was mumbled but Luffy still heard what he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask anyone."

The door was shut leaving the three brothers alone.

Ace and Sabo immediately stripped and climbed into the large tub and both snatched a cloth and started scrubbing themselves clean.

Luffy grabbed a cloth of his own before dipping it into the water before rigorously rubbing the cloth on the back of his hand as hard as he could, hoping that the now dried blood would come off easily. He didn't really mind blood. He got hurt all the time so blood wasn't something he wasn't used to. But he really didn't like Thatch's blood on him. It reminded him that his friend was hurt and he hadn't been strong enough to help fight against Teach. He wanted to help Thatch but Sabo had been right. There was no way that they could fight someone that could hurt the commander.

"Luffy stop!"

The seven year old was shocked when he felt someone grab his wrist and stopped him from scrubbing.

He looked up at Sabo who was now pulling the cloth out of his hand. "If you keep that up you're going to make yourself bleed." Luffy looked down at his hand and noticed that there was no longer any blood on his hand but it was now a bright red and looked raw.

"Come on."

Sabo grabbed his other hand and made him stand up. He took off Luffy's hat and set it by the door where it would be safe. "You need to take off your cloths so they can get clean."

The small boy nodded before following his brother's orders. Sabo then led him to the tub and made him sit on edge. He guided Luffy's feet into the water and he instantly felt the effects of the water. He tried to pull his feet out but Sabo held onto them.

"It's alright. You're with me and Ace. Nothing is going to hurt you," the blonde reassured before gently cleaning the blood off of his legs.

After a few minutes there was a quiet knock at the door.

"Come in!" Ace called.

Izo opened to door with and placed a pile of clothes next to Luffy's hat. "I brought you something to wear. The shirts are going to be too big but they'll be good enough to see Pops and comfortable enough to sleep in." He frowned. "Is Luffy alright? He seems a little out of it."

"He's fine," Ace stated. "Just tired."

The pirate nodded. "Understandable. When you're finished I'll be right outside waiting to take you to Pops."

Sabo nodded. "Thank you for the clothes."

"No problem." With that the pirate left and closed the door behind him.

Ace pulled himself out of the tub and grabbed a towel and quickly dried himself off. He grabbed another towel before walking to Luffy and grabbing him under this arms helped him stand. Once out of the water Luffy felt his strength return. Ace dropped the towel on his head and Luffy used it to dry off.

As they were pulling on their over-sized shirts Luffy asked, "Why didn't you tell Marco that we saw that guy stab Thatch?" He had been wondering sense they had told the commanders that they had seen Teach leave the ship.

Sabo and Ace traded looks before the blonde answered. "They might be mad that we didn't help Thatch fight. That I didn't let Ace help Thatch fight."

"That's stupid," Luffy mumbled. The others wouldn't be mad at them. Especially since it seemed like a lot of the crew, especially the commanders, were a lot stronger than they were. And Sabo had a good reason for them not to fight. Because they didn't fight they were able to help Thatch get the help that he needed.

"Like you know anything about it," Ace said before opening the door and stepping out of the room.

They found Izo leaning against the wall, eyes closed. Luffy thought he looked really tired and sad. The pirate opened his eyes before looking at them and asking, "Ready to go see Pops?"

* * *

Edward Newgate was heartbroken. One of his precious sons was fighting for his life and the only theory was that it was someone he had taken in, put under his protection, and considered family and loved had tried to kill Thatch.

He desperately wanted it all to be a nightmare. A lie.

He sat on his bed knowing that he wasn't going to get anymore sleep that night. Not while his son was fighting for his life. Not until he knew for sure that Teach had been the one to attack Thatch.

He heard a knock at his door and knew it was Izo delivering his three guests. "Come in!" he called.

"Hey Pops. How are you doing?" He smiled at his son's thoughtfulness.

"I'll be better when I know how Thatch is."

"I'm sure Lyra will send up a nurse soon to let you know what's happening."

"She's a good girl. She won't make all of us worry for long," he agreed.

Izo smiled at him softly.

"So where are the brats?" he asked. He was anxious to talk to them and hear the entire story from them.

"They're here," Izo said gesturing outside the door. The three filed into the room looking down. They were clean and thankfully there was no trace of blood on them. The old pirate didn't like seeing ones so small covered in the stuff.

He couldn't help raising an eyebrow at the choice of attire Izo had made. Each had on a too large shirt, his mark clearly visible on the front of each shirt.

"Just a thought," Izo said before leaving and shutting the door behind him. He chuckled at the boy's forwardness. It was obvious that Izo was sending the message that he wanted the brats to be part of the family. It's not like the captain hadn't thought about it but he had made a deal with Garp and he would not break his word just because he found the three cute.

He hadn't realized that Izo had an opinion on the subject.

'That brat,' he thought fondly before turning his attention fully on the three children in front of him. All three looked tense, exhausted, and emotionally drained. The oversized shirts made them look younger than he knew they were and he felt his heart go out to them.

"Relax," he told them softly. "I just want to know what happened tonight that's all."

They traded a look.

"Go on. You're not in trouble."

The two older boys traded looks before the full story came tumbling out. They told him about how Luffy had never felt comfortable around Teach. How the little one had a nightmare and wanted to go check on his friend. How they actually saw Teach attack Thatch before watching him leave the Moby Dick. They told him how they had found Thatch and how they had tried to help him.

He sat in silence until they were done talking.

He was shocked.

They had seen it happen.

They had actually witnessed and were able to describe, in detail, what had happened to Thatch. Someone they trusted and thought of as a friend had been attacked and they were able to keep a cool head during the entire thing.

"I'm sorry," Sabo apologized. The poor child looked close to tears. "Ace wanted to help Thatch fight off Teach but I wouldn't let him. If I had let him maybe-"

The captain cut off the boy before he could say anything more. "Thank goodness you stopped him. If Teach is able to take down one of my commanders then he is stronger than what he appears. If you had joined the fight we might not have found any of you until morning and by then it would be too late. If Thatch does survive it will be thanks to your actions tonight," he told them. They just looked at their shoes. "You all look tired. You may sleep here with me tonight."

"O-oh no. We really couldn't," Sabo protested.

"Yeah. We wouldn't want to bother you," Ace said.

"It won't be a bother. I offered."

"I don't want to sleep," Luffy pouted.

He studied the pale faces in front of him and then scooped all three boys up, laid down, and sat them on his chest hoping that it would offer enough comfort for them to settle down and get some rest. "If you don't want to sleep that's fine," he said. "I don't feel much like sleeping myself. How about a story?"

"What kind of story?" the smallest asked.

He smiled kindly. "Have you ever heard of Montblanc Noland the Liar?" They shook their heads. "I thought not. It's a story that they tell mainly in the North Blue."

By the end of the story all three youngsters were sound asleep. He smiled at them fondly. He enjoyed having them on his ship. They were entertaining to watch and his children, even those that didn't spend much time with the brats enjoyed having the three around.

Everyone had nearly panicked when the avalanche buried Ace in the snow and it took so long to find him. The entire crew had celebrated after finding him under that rock, completely safe from harm.

His smile grew sad. They would be missed when they left. But until then he would enjoy having them around.

He was broken out of his thoughts by a soft knock on the door. It slowly opened. "Pops are you still up?" A quiet voice asked.

"Come in child," he said quietly. It was Iris, one of his nurses.

"I've come to update you on Thatch," she said looking at the three children on his chest.

"Go on," he encouraged keeping his voice low as to not disturb his sleeping guests. "Tell me what's wrong with him."

"Well, he was stabbed in the back. Luckily the knife missed the spine. He lost a lot of blood so we had to give him a transfusion. His ribs, which were cracked from the avalanche, are broken now and one pierced a lung. This is what Lyra is most concerned about. She was able to get the bleeding under control and is now working on repairing the lung. It is a little worse than we initially thought."

"Thank you for letting me know. Please keep me updated. I'll probably be awake for the rest of the night and even if I'm not please don't hesitate to wake me."

"Alright. I'll see you later Pops." She hesitated by the door before turning back to him. "Is it true what they are saying? Was Thatch attacked by someone on the crew?"

"We are doing some fact checking but unfortunately I am positive that's what happened."

"Oh. I'm sorry Pops. I know this must be hard for you."

"It's hard for us all child. But we will figure it all out. Now off with you before Lyra gets upset at you for being gone so long."

She smiled at him. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight. Try to get some rest when you can."

The door closed softly leaving him alone with his thoughts and the three sleeping boys.

* * *

Marco did his best not to stomp around deck and show just how angry and frustrated he was with the situation. His best friend, his brother, was attacked by someone, most likely Teach, and was now undergoing a surgery that would hopefully save his life. It was now just after dawn and he had just finished checking his division and second division. Teach was indeed missing and was the only one in the first two divisions that was. He desperately wanted to go after the man and teach him a thing or two about what it meant to, not only mess with his friends but, to spit in the old man's face and take advantage of his protection and love. Just thinking about it just made him too angry to do anything but seethe about what had happened.

"Calm down," Haruta said walking with him as he approached Pops' door.

The information was gathered and now it was time to report. "After what happened, how can I calm down!?"

"Well getting angry about it right now is not going to help anyone." Haruta was probably right. He needed to clear his head before he did anything stupid. "So, is Teach missing?" Haruta asked casually as if the answer didn't matter to her.

"Yeah. The only one in first and second division unaccounted for. Anyone missing in your division?"

"No. I talked to some of the others and it seems like no one else is missing or hurt."

Marco let out a sigh. At least no one else was hurt.

They arrived at the old man's door and knocked.

"Come in."

They walked into the dimly lit room and saw the old man, not drinking like usual, but humming a soft tune. Marco felt bad when he noticed the three tiny forms curled around each other on the old man's chest. He had completely forgotten about checking to make sure that they were alright.

"Teach is missing?"

"Yeah he is," Marco confirmed.

The old man didn't look surprised as he nodded his head. "I have no doubt that he is the one that attacked your brother."

"I'll go start looking for him. He won't get away with this." Marco said. Second division was under his command right now so it was his responsibility to take the man out.

"No. I have a funny feeling about this. We will not be going after him. At least not yet." After the command was given the old man started humming again.

Marco stood stunned at what his father had just said. Someone had attacked the family and he _wasn't_ supposed to go kill the bastard? "Alright." He would not question Pops on this. He would do as he was told and hopefully, eventually he would be able to go after the monster that had committed the ultimate sin on a pirate ship.

A distressed cry filled the room and Luffy sat up, tears in his eyes.

Marco felt bad for the little guy. How many nightmares had he had in the past few weeks? The events of the night would probably not help him either.

"Hush little one," Whitebeard soothed. "It was just a dream. Nothing can harm you or your loved ones while you're with me."

Marco watched in fascination as Luffy was able to calm down after the words were spoken. The little boy looked up at the giant man and silent understanding passed between them and a spark that Marco knew very well entered into the old man's eyes.

He had seen that look in his father's eyes whenever the man decided that he wanted something. He wanted the brats to stay. Hopefully they wouldn't have the _all_ of the marines after them when the old man got what he wanted. Marco had no doubt that they could take on the entire marine force if need be. It would just be annoying to do so.

"The sun is up," Luffy observed. "Do I have to keep sleeping?"

The old man chuckled quietly, as to not wake the other boys. "No, but you are more than welcome to stay."

"Is Thatch better?" he asked looking hopeful.

"Not yet." Luffy seemed to be distressed by this news. "I'm sure he'll be fine though," the old man reassured but it didn't seem to work.

Luckily Marco knew just how to distract the kid. "Hey Luffy, the cooks woke up early so breakfast should be ready by now. Want to go get something to eat?"

He perked up for a second but then looked down at his brothers. He shook his head and laid back down. "I'll wait for Ace and Sabo."

Marco didn't know what to do so he just nodded his head. He was sure that would cheer the brat up. "Well, if you're sure, I'm going to go see if I can get any news on Thatch. If you need anything Pops don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you Son."

Arriving at the infirmary he noticed that the entire fourth division was sitting outside the door and looked as if they had been there for a while. There were many men from the other divisions including a few of the commanders. It would seem that everyone was waiting anxiously to hear news on how their brother was doing.

Marco took a seat next to Vista and buried his face in his hands. He wanted to cry but refused to do so.

He wouldn't cry.

That wouldn't help anyone at this point.

And Thatch wasn't dead yet.

They sat in relative silence for another forty two minutes and twenty six seconds before the door swung open and Lyra stepped out.

Poor woman looked utterly exhausted.

She rolled her eyes at seeing all the men lining the hallway. "Don't you people have jobs to do?" she demanded hands on her hips before sighing. "Commander Thatch was hurt badly during the attack. He sustained multiple injuries. He was stabbed in the back, has some bruises, broken ribs, and a punctured lung. He is currently under sedation and intubated and will stay that way until his lung has healed enough to take him off the machine. He is still currently alive and I intend to keep him that way. Now get lost all of you because only Pops and the commanders are allowed in to see him for the time being. I have to go update Pops and when I get back I want all of you gone."

Marco let out a breath he hadn't been aware that he was holding.

* * *

**Thank you for reading XD Let me know what you think.  
**


	13. Flames

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited **

**(This story has more than 300 reviews :D)**

**People weren't expecting the thing with Teach so ya'll probably weren't expecting this.**

* * *

**Ch. 13 Flames**

Ace was frustrated. It had been about a week since… Teach had left. It had been a week and he had not been able see his friend since the Lyra and the nurses had carried him away to the infirmary.

Ace had asked multiple times if he could visit Thatch, he even had Luffy use his puppy-dog eyes (the ones even Marco couldn't say no to) but still he had been denied. Every time he would ask, the adults would just say that it wasn't a good idea and that he didn't want to see Thatch hooked up to everything that he was hooked up to right now.

It pissed him off.

How would they know what Ace would want?

Three days ago the ship had docked at one of the lesser inhabited islands under Pop- Whitebeard's protection and they were planning on staying there for at least two weeks. Marco had said that it was so that everyone could have a chance to recuperate and that they needed to replenish their food supplies in peace without anyone trying to fight them. Ace knew that it was because everyone was distracted and hurt by what had happened.

He was a kid, not stupid.

He knew that everyone on board had taken the attack and betrayal hard, especially the people from the fourth and second divisions.

Everyone had also been acting weird around him and his brothers too. They all took more notice of them and seemed to watch them more than they used to. He didn't really understand why but Marco said that everyone was worried about them too. The news that they had seen the attack happen spread like wild fire among the crew and since then the three boys could only be alone in their room. As soon as they were on deck they were surrounded by pirates. Ace had asked the first division commander why everyone was concerned about them; they weren't the ones hurt. The pirate responded by saying that seeing someone get stabbed was not something that children should ever see and that the crew was worried about how they would react.

For some reason Marco got upset when Ace just scoffed and told him plainly that it was not the first time they had seen someone get stabbed.

Heck Luffy stabbed himself in the face before, not that Ace had seen that. But they were no strangers to violence and blood; or knives for that matter. They had seen their fair share while in the Gray Terminal.

Despite the crew being more watchful he, Sabo and Luffy were able to sneak out of their room off the ship for some much needed alone time and were now currently playing on a secluded beach a few miles away from the Moby Dick. Luffy was running around looking at what could only be wreckage from a sunken ship that had washed up onto shore, stretching his limbs as far as he could, excited to have permission to do so. Sabo and Ace sat in the sand next to each other, pipes held loosely in their hands, facing different ways keeping watch for any potential enemies.

Ace was well aware that they were probably going to be met by a multitude of unhappy pirates when they made their way back to the Moby Dick but at the moment he didn't really care. He really needed to get away from all the adults. Besides he couldn't remember the last time Luffy had been able to use his powers and he knew it was difficult for his little brother to keep it under control and didn't like how he felt when he couldn't stretch.

It was nice to see Luffy so happy and excited.

It was also nice to see Sabo relax a bit. The blonde had been stressed out lately.

The nightmares didn't help either. They were all having them now.

Images of Thatch lying in a growing pool of blood haunted his dreams and knew that they would until he was certain that the man was going to be okay. What frustrated him was that he was even having nightmares. It wasn't the first time he'd seen someone almost killed, it probably wouldn't be the last. Especially if he became a pirate like he was planning.

So why should it matter that it had been Thatch that he had seen stabbed? Why did it affect him so much? Was he getting soft?

"Oi, Luffy what are you looking at?" Sabo's voice broke through his thoughts. Ace turned to see Luffy squatting in the sand looking at something.

He picked, whatever it was, up and started running towards them. "Look what I found!"

He presented his prize to his brothers proudly.

"No way," Sabo breathed in disbelief.

"Isn't it cool looking? I've never seen a fruit like this before," Luffy said turning the fruit around in his hands looking pleased with his find.

"Lu, that's a devil fruit," Ace said.

"Really?"

"I think so," Sabo said.

Luffy stuck out his tongue and threw it behind his shoulder. "It's gross I don't want it."

Ace quickly picked it up and dusted the sand off. "Where did you find it?"

"Over there," he pointed down the beach towards some of the debris where he had been just moments ago.

"You found it just lying on the beach?" Ace asked in disbelief. There were thousands of people looking for these things and Luffy found one just lying on a beach?

"Yup. Isn't it cool looking?" he asked again.

Ace studied the fruit. It looked similar to the one that Thatch had but different at the same time. The color instead of a dark purple was a variety of orange, yellow, and red. If Ace was to describe it he would say that it looked like fire. "It is pretty cool," Ace agreed sending his brother a smile.

Luffy grinned.

"What are you going to do with it?" Sabo asked. "Are you going to eat it? Can you eat it? I don't think I've ever heard of someone having two devil fruit powers."

"I already said no; it's gross. I don't want to eat that."

Ace passed the fruit from hand to hand wondering if there was a tactful way of asking Luffy if he could have it. He knew that it was Luffy's but ever since he had met the kid he had been interested in the devil fruits and wondered what it would be like to eat one.

"Do you want it?" Luffy asked Sabo and Ace felt his heart sink.

"No. I don't want it. Someone has to fish you out of the water when you fall in. If I eat that then I can't help you in the water anymore."

"Do you want it Ace?" Luffy asked looking up at him.

"You could get a lot of money if you sale it," he said wanting to take it for himself but knew that he should make sure his brother knew what he would be giving up if he let Ace have it.

"What would I want with that?"

"You could save for when you become a pirate," Sabo said thoughtfully. Ace nodded in agreement. That's what Luffy should do with it. Sale it and start saving for the journey he would undoubtedly take when he got older. "Or you could give it Thatch when he woke up since his was stolen."

Luffy looked uncharacteristically thoughtful for a moment before looking towards Ace and cocking his head to the side. "Ace you didn't answer my question. Do you want it?"

It was a big decision. Should he give up his ability to swim for a power when he didn't even know what power it was yet?

"Go for it." He turned to look at Sabo. "I know you want to. Maybe it will be something really cool."

He had already told Sabo that if he ever got the opportunity he would eat a devil fruit. That he wanted that power so that he could protect his brothers and be stronger than anyone else.

"Do it Ace! Eat it now!" Luffy cheered.

"But, what if the power something lame?"

"I bet it's really cool because Ace is really cool," Luffy said using his Luffy logic.

"You'll never know if you don't eat it," Sabo egged on in a sing song voice.

"But, like you said, what if Luffy falls into the water? I won't be able to save him. I won't be able to swim anymore and-"

"I'll save Luffy and you if either of you fall in," Sabo said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was, if Ace thought about it.

He studied the fruit from every angle. He really wanted to eat it. He looked over at his brother again. Luffy looked really excited. Sabo nodded once. It was now or never. He shrugged before taking a bite.

And almost spit it back out.

Luffy was right about the taste. Oh well, no going back now. He chomped down the fruit as quickly as he could. Once it was gone he grimace.

"That was really gross," he said sticking his tongue out. He really wanted some water to get rid of the taste.

"How do you feel?"

"Sticky," he said looking at the juice on his hands frowning.

"Is that it? You don't feel like you're going to turn into some sort of animal, or sprout extra limbs, or grow swords out of your arms?"

"What?"

Sabo shrugged. "I've read about some fruits that can do stuff like that."

"No I feel like I usually do. Nothing new."

"Aw, it wasn't a power fruit," Luffy pouted.

"I guess not," Sabo said looking disappointed.

Ace felt a tickle on his nose. "Why are you the ones disappointed," he demanded before letting out a sneeze.

"Whoa!" Sabo yelled falling to the sand.

Luffy was looking at him with stars in his eyes.

"Ace, d-did you just sneeze fire?"

"I-I think so."

"Ace is a fire man," Luffy sang happily, giggling. "I told you it would be cool." He grew serious. "But it's not as cool as being a rubber man."

Ace looked at his hand concentrating hard. He jumped when it suddenly turned into fire. He couldn't hold back the grin that spread over his face. He'd never felt this way. He felt powerful. He felt awesome.

He felt complete.

It was like he had been waiting for this power his whole life.

He stared at his hand as it turned back to normal. It was awesome!

He turned towards Sabo who was grinning like mad as he watched him. "How does it feel?" he asked.

"Amazing."

* * *

Sabo was happy for his brother. Ace had expressed a number of times that he wanted to eat a devil fruit and he had gotten his chance a lot sooner than either of them had expected. They had both thought that it would take years and a lot of money for Ace to get his hands on a fruit.

He laughed as he watched Luffy jump back as Ace, with some difficulty, was able to turn his whole arm into fire. The brunette had been at it for hours and it was more than a little obvious that he was having troubling controlling his new power.

Sabo looked towards the sea, at the now setting sun and frowned. They had been gone a little longer than what they had meant to be. "Hey, do you think we should start heading back?" he asked the two.

"Why?" Ace asked. "We're not leaving for another week and a half at least."

"True, but we didn't tell anyone where we were going."

"So? It's not like we've never done that before."

This was also true. But Sabo had a feeling that the crew cared more about what they did than Dadan and Garp ever did. But that wasn't saying much.

Besides, he rationalized, no one on the crew had seen them leave so they probably thought they were still in their room and Sabo really didn't want to go back just yet. It was nice being with just his brothers.

"Can we sleep in the sand?" Luffy asked looking excited at the concept.

"I don't see why not," Sabo said. "As long as we sleep far enough away from the water."

"Yay!" Luffy cheered jumping in a circle.

It had been an interesting day watching his brothers play with their powers. He forgot how far Luffy could stretch and how excited he got when he could stretch further than he used to.

"We should probably go gather some wood so that we can have a fire going all night. It probably gets really cold at night and I for one do not want to freeze," Ace said heading back towards the trees Sabo and Luffy following close behind.

"Can you get cold if you're fire?" Luffy asked.

"I don't know," Ace responded with a shrug.

By the time they had enough wood that would keep the fire going all night it was already dark.

"Alright Ace," Sabo said turning to the fire boy once they had the wood set up.

The fire boy was staring at his hand intently, concentrating very hard.

Nothing happened.

"Oh come on I just did this like twenty minutes ago," he complained before trying again, Luffy standing right next to him looking hopeful and amazed.

His entire left side turned into fire.

Sabo grabbed Luffy and pulled him away just in time to save him from getting burnt.

"Be careful!" he scolded angrily. That had been close.

"Sorry Lu," Ace said before lighting their fire and turning back to normal.

"It's alright Ace. Powers are hard to get used to."

"I'll still try to be more careful," he said collapsing into the sand looking exhausted.

Luffy laid down in between them and curled up in the sand. He was asleep shortly after.

"I'm sure you'll get used to it in no time," Sabo said crossing his arms behind his head and lying down.

"I hope so. I don't want to accidently hurt someone."

"Just get some sleep. We'll figure out something tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

* * *

Marco glared at the three boys as they approached the ship. They had been discovered missing yesterday at lunch time when they hadn't shown up. It had led to a massive search of the ship and they still hadn't been able to find them. Pops had called off the search before they moved to the island saying that they would be fine, but it still didn't make any of the crew feel better. There had been a few ships spotted in the area that could mean trouble.

"Where have you been?" Marco greeted the three.

"At the beach," Ace answered lazily swinging his pipe around as the other two climbed onto deck, ignoring the angry pirates around them.

"You thought it would be a good idea to disappear for a day and not tell anyone?" Marco demanded angrily.

"The ship is going to be docked for more than a week," Sabo shrugged. "We knew that you weren't planning on leaving anytime soon so we thought we would just sleep on the beach."

"Next time you decide to leave the ship tell someone!"

"Hi Marco!"

The pirate sighed and smiled at the little boy despite his anger. He couldn't help it. "Hey Luffy."

"Hey Marco, guess what?"

"What?"

"We gotta sleep in the sand last night."

"That's nice kid, but you should have told someone that you were leaving."

"Why?"

Marco blinked. It seemed as if the brat really didn't think that anyone would like to know where he was.

"So that we don't worry about you. We had no idea where you were."

"Why would you worry?" Ace asked.

"Why wouldn't we?"

"Nobody else ever has," Sabo shrugged.

Marco starred down at the three boys. Had they really never had anyone that cared about what they did and whether they were safe or not?

He rubbed his head not really knowing what to say. He decided to change the subject to something that would make the brats happy. "Thatch woke up."

* * *

**I wasn't really planning on having Ace eat his fruit right now when I first started writing. I was going to have him eat it a bit later than this but I figured I've screwed with the time line enough that it didn't matter. Having him eat the fruit now fit better with future plans I have for this universe. Plus I love Ace's power. If I could have any power from One Piece it would be his.**

**And about him having trouble controlling his new found powers it just makes sense to me that he would have to train in order to be able to control fie.**

**Thanks for reading XD**

**Kouru-Kage- Thanks again for all your help :) And before chapter one I said that I tweaked the time line just a bit. Basically Romance Dawn takes place days after Luffy turns six, not seven. They leave with Garp about year later and have been with the WB pirates for a little less than four months at this point. **

**P.S. I'm totally going to bribe you guys for reviews. Next chapter will be out next week unless I can get more than 30 reviews. I just want to see if anyone actually reads the last bit from me and I figured this was a good way to tell.  
**


	14. Burned

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited **

**So when I said I would post a new chapter when I got over 30 reviews I thought that I would be updating sometime tomorrow or Monday. I went shopping with a friend, got home and had 37 reviews for the last chapter! So as promised here is the new one XD**

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**Ch. 14 Burned**

Thatch struggled to stand, ignoring the pain that shot through his chest and back. He had more important things to do than just laze around all day. First and foremost he had to find Ace, Sabo, and Luffy. When he woke up all he could remember was that he had been attacked and that the trio had been there at some point.

The first thing he did was quickly look around the room for the three brats and when he didn't see them he had, admittedly freaked out. If he had been as hurt as he was now he couldn't imagine how bad the three young boys were. It had taken Lyra, two nurses, Marco and a mild sedative to calm him down.

Once he had been able to think properly everything had come flooding back to him. Teach's attack and the boys finding him bleeding to death on the floor. He shuddered at the thought of them seeing him like that.

He had asked for the three to come see him right away only to find out that they were missing.

Now he heard that they were back on the ship and, thankfully, perfectly fine. Physically anyway.

He had been persistent when questioning his fellow commanders about the boys and found out that all three had been having nightmares since the attack. And not only had they found him but they had actually seen the attack.

He really wanted to see them. He hated knowing that he was the reason that they were having trouble sleeping.

"What are you doing?" came the firm voice that everyone on the crew had come to fear.

He slowly turned to face a very angry blonde doctor. She was glaring at him, hands on her hips and foot tapping.

"G-going back to my room?"

"I don't think so. You can barely stand. You're not going back to your room for at least a week or two and after that you will be on bed rest for a while and then it's lite duty for you."

"Don't you think that's a bit excessive?" he asked quietly. He hated being injured. It took all the fun out of everything and there was no way was he staying in bed for that long.

"If you don't get back in bed right now I will revoke all visitor rights."

"Can you even do that?" he asked incredulously. He regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth. Of course she could. This was her domain.

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'll just get back in bed," he said sheepishly.

"Good choice."

She busied herself helping him back into the bed and reconnecting him to the various machines she had monitoring him for only she knew what.

"Don't worry. Marco will bring them by soon. He knows that you're anxious to see them and everyone knows that they are anxious to see you too. We thought it would be best for them not to visit you until you were off the ventilator and awake."

He nodded, hoping that she was right. He really needed to make sure the brats were okay for himself.

"How are you feeling? Any new pain?"

"Nope, just my back and ribs."

"Do you feel nauseous?"

She continued to question him until the door burst open and three small forms ran into the room followed by an awkward looking Marco. Thatch wondered at that. The doctor smiled briefly before putting on a stern face and stepped between him and the three hooligans.

"No jumping on the bed," she said. By the looks of things that had been exactly what Luffy been planning to do.

The three skidded to a stop and looked up at the doctor.

"Hi Nice Doctor Lady," Luffy said.

A smile spread across her face. The brats were the only ones on the ship who thought she was nice and that was only because Marco had been able to convince her to let Luffy share a bed with one of his brothers while all three had been sick. "Hello Luffy."

"Can we talk to Thatch now?" he asked politely, well as politely as he knew how.

"Do you promise not to jump on the bed or yell and leave when I say it's time to leave?"

Ace scowled at the rules but nodded. Sabo agreed as well. Luffy thought for a moment before saying "Yup."

"Alright then. You can have a few minutes. If he gets tired you should leave."

"Thank you Doctor Lyra," Sabo said before all three had their full attention on the injured man.

"Thatch is all better," Luffy cheered causing the pirate to smile. He really wanted to hug the kid right then.

"Not quite but I'm getting there. I understand that I have you three to thank for that."

"We didn't really do anything," Ace said looking off to the side.

"Yeah. All we did was get the others to come help," Sabo said scratching the back of his head.

"And that saved my life. Thank you."

Sabo and Ace both blushed at his thanks while Luffy just looked confused. It was adorable. Although Thatch would never say that out loud.

Marco came up behind Luffy and picked him up, gently putting him on the bed with the other pirate. Thatch smiled at his friend before reaching for the small boy and pulling him into a hug. He was just so relieved that they were all right. For a while there he had been convinced that Teach had gotten to them too. Sure he had remembered everything that had happened, but seeing them now was what truly made the panic he had felt earlier finally leave.

He smiled as Luffy pulled away and looked up at him curiously, probably wondering about why Thatch was holding him now. "I'm really glad to see you," he said in explanation.

"Oh okay," the boy said before snuggling into his chest gently trying to be careful of his injuries. Thatch smiled at the action. "I'm really glad to see Thatch too."

"So what have you three been up to?" the commander asked looking towards the two older ones.

"Nothing much," Sabo said.

Ace looked as if he were desperately trying to hold in a sneeze.

"You alright Buddy?" Thatch asked the boy who nodded, covering his nose with his hand.

The boy sighed in relief and removed his hand after a few seconds.

"Yeah I'm great. I'm really glad that you're getting better." He walked to the bed and took Luffy out of Thatch's arms. "You, look really tired. We have to go now."

Before another word could be spoken Luffy was out of his arms and all three were out of the room. Thatch turned to Marco who shrugged, confused as he was.

* * *

Ace dragged his brothers back to their room as quick as he was able. That had been entirely too close. He had almost lost control while with Marco and Thatch.

"Is everything alright?" Sabo asked once they were settled in their room.

"Yeah. I just almost sneezed again."

"Maybe we should've stayed at the beach until you had better control," Sabo said looking concerned.

"I thought I had the hang of it," Ace said disappointed.

"You can't expect to master something like that in less than a day," the blond reassured.

"Luffy doesn't have this problem."

"He's rubber. He just stretches and he still has to train. You're fire, a force of nature. It's a bit different."

Ace felt a tingling in his arm that he had come to learn meant that the fire was about to come. He shook his arm hoping to stop the fire.

He was disappointed when it didn't work.

He tried to smother the fire by patting it out but it didn't work.

He faintly noticed Sabo grab an old glass of water and throw it at him. There was a hiss as the flames went out and Ace turned towards his brother, unimpressed.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Sabo countered with a smug grin.

Ace sighed in frustration. "What am I going to do? I can't even go walking around deck without catching fire if I can't get it under control."

"Ask Marco," Luffy said, butting into the conversation.

Ace gave him an 'are-you-kidding-me' look. "Why would I do that?"

"Why not? Marco is good. He won't tell."

Ace blinked at the statement. It sounded like it was more than speculation.

"How would you know that?" Sabo asked sounding suspicious.

Luffy instantly looked to the side. "I just think he would be okay to tell. It's not like he knows I'm rubber or anything."

Ace and Sabo both hit their brother on the head.

"What was that for?" he complained.

"YOU TOLD MARCO?!" Ace yelled.

"Shut up! Do you want everyone on the ship to come see what you're yellin' about?" Sabo hissed before turning towards the smallest in the group. "How could you tell someone after both of us and Gramps told you not to?"

"I didn't tell him. He found out."

"Oh and how did he find out?" Ace asked crossing his arms and standing over Luffy to look more intimidating.

"When you guys were sick I went with Marco to a town. He bought me a snack but had to leave for a second. When he was gone there were these guys and one pulled on my arm to get me off of the seat 'cause he wanted it. My arm stretched and the guys thought it was funny and they kept stretchin' me. Marco made them stop. Then he promised not to tell anyone."

Ace and Sabo both blinked at the story. This was the first they had heard of it. Luffy had actually kept it a secret for this long?

"So he saved you?" Sabo asked.

"Yup."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want you to be mad."

Ace shook his head in annoyance. "You should'a told us. What if he _had _hurt you or told someone that wanted to hurt you?"

"Marco wouldn't hurt me. And he promised not to tell."

Both boys rolled their eyes at their brother's trusting nature.

"Does anyone else know?"

"No."

"Well at least it was only Marco. We can trust him," Sabo said.

Ace nodded in agreement. After their time spent on the Moby Dick he was almost positive they could trust everyone on board. The only exception had been Teach and apparently they had good reason not to trust him. In fact he was sure that if everyone on the ship found out about him or Luffy it wouldn't be that big of a deal. The only thing that made him want to keep it a secret was Garp. He wouldn't be happy if he knew that someone found out about Luffy.

Would the geezer get mad if they found out about Ace eating a devil fruit? Well, the geezer didn't have find out.

"Then ask Marco to help," Luffy insisted. "He's a fire bird so he can help Ace with his fire."

Huh. Luffy actually had a point. But Ace really wanted to try and work this out on his own.

As if sensing his thoughts Sabo spoke up. "How about you try for a week or two to work things out and if you can't then you go to Marco to see if he can help."

"Alright if I can't get hang of it in two weeks I'll ask Marco for help," he agreed.

A week later Ace had wished that he just asked for help.

It had started out as an okay day. He and his brothers pretty much stayed in their cabin so that he could try to gain control of his fire but it seemed to not be working. In fact his control seemed to be getting worse.

"Just leave me alone," Ace yelled at his blonde brother.

"NO! You almost burned Luffy! That the fourth time!"

"No I didn't," he protested quietly, knowing that it was true. He had almost burned Luffy but that was because the younger boy had jumped on his back and it had surprised him.

"Don't lie! I saw his shirt! You almost hurt our little brother!"

"SHUT UP! You weren't there you don't know what happened!"

"I can guess. You need to go ask for help. If you hurt Luffy I won't forgive you!"

Ace didn't mean to.

He was just hurt and angry that Sabo would ever think that he would actually hurt Luffy in any way. He couldn't control the fire. He could feel it building underneath his skin until it was released.

"AHHH!"

"SABO!"

Ace's eyes widened in horror as he watched Sabo fall to the ground curling up on his side, screaming in agony. The scent of charred clothing and burned flesh filled the room.

He had hurt his brother.

He had burned Sabo.

He watched numbly as Luffy jumped off the bed where he had been watching the fight and ran to the blonde's side.

"Ace you hurt Sabo," the youngest brother accused, anger in his eyes.

"I-I I'm sorry." He blinked back the tears. He hadn't meant to hurt him. He didn't want to hurt him. He just got angry like he usually did. And now this. "I'm sorry," he repeated taking a step back, away from the other two.

"Are you okay?" he heard Luffy question.

"Y-yeah. I think so."

"I'm sorry," Ace heard himself say again.

"Does Sabo need to go see doctor lady?" Luffy asked.

"I'm sorry," Ace said one more time before running out of the room. He didn't hear any of the calls that followed as he ran down the ramp of the ship and into the forest on the island.

He just needed to get away. He had hurt his brother.

He had hurt Sabo.

One of the two people in the world that knew who he was and still wanted him around. He couldn't stand to see the hate in those eyes that had only shown him kindness since they had met years ago.

Sabo was his first friend; his brother. And he had hurt him.

Everyone had been right about him. He didn't deserve to live.

* * *

Luffy sat on Thatch's bed as he watched Doctor Lady look at Sabo's side. She was asking questions, most of Sabo's answers were a halfhearted shrug. The other boy hadn't wanted to come. He wanted to go look for Ace but Luffy decided that he needed to get his burns looked at and once Luffy decided something it happened.

Luffy looked behind him when he felt a poke in his back.

"What happened to Sabo?" Thatch asked, looking towards the boy.

"He got burned."

"How did that happen?" the man asked.

Luffy debated on what he should say. He really shouldn't lie to Thatch. He was a friend. But Ace and Sabo didn't want to tell anyone about Ace's powers for some reason.

Finally he decided to just tell the truth.

"It's a secret."

"A secret eh? What kind of secret?"

"I can't tell you. Then it wouldn't be a secret anymore."

"True," the pirate conceded.

"Luffy?" Said boy looked up to see an angry doctor staring at him. "What happened to your brother? He won't say anything other than he got burned. He won't tell me how."

"I can't tell," the little boy said crossing his arms. "It's none of your business anyways."

"You tell her Lu!" Sabo cheered.

Doctor Lady didn't like that. She looked really angry but then took a deep breath and said softly.

"If you don't tell me what happened I can't treat him properly. It might do more harm than good."

Luffy bit his lip. Was it true? Could Sabo be more hurt if they didn't tell her what had happened?

"Sabo got burned by Ace's fire," he explained.

"The boys occasionally cook their own meals," Thatch spoke up. "Sabo probably fell in or something."

"Yeah. That's what happened. I didn't want to tell you because it's embarrassing," the blonde said agreeing with the pirate.

Luffy was confused. That's not what happened at all. He turned to say something but Sabo put a finger to his lips telling him to be quiet.

"Well, your burns certainly could have been a lot worse," Doctor Lady said. "I just had to pick out some of the cloth that is burned to the skin but that is the worst of it. You only have second degree burns which means that none of the tissue died. However you will spend the night in here. At least until the blisters are gone so that I can keep an eye on it."

Sabo shook his head. "I feel fine now. I have to go find Ace." He attempted to get out of bed but was stopped by one of the nurses who pushed him back down.

"I don't think so young man. There are plenty of people who can find your brother. You just stay right there until I say so," the doctor said glaring at the boy.

"B-but it's already been an hour. Who knows what stupid things he's been thinking?"

"I don't care. Stay! If I find out you moved from that bed then I'll drug you so you can't move." She grabbed a stack of books before going into her office and slamming the door.

"She's scary," Sabo said wide eyed.

Luffy giggled. "She's funny."

"Why would Ace be thinking stupid things?" Thatch asked, eyes narrowed.

"It was his fire," Luffy said as if it would explain everything.

Before the conversation could continue the door opened.

* * *

**Thank you to everyone who read. Next chapter should be out sometime next week XD**

**Let me know what you thought...**


	15. Battle

**Thank you to all those who followed/reviewed/favorited**

* * *

**Ch. 14 Battle**

Marco frowned as he saw Ace run off the ship by himself looking upset watching as the boy ran towards the forest.

That wasn't good.

There had been several enemy ships seen in the area and there was no guarantee that there wasn't anyone on the island that would hurt him. Marco shook his head before taking off after the kid. He followed at a distance as the kid ran for about a half hour before he tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. As the pirate grew closer he realized that the boy was crying. He frowned in concern.

"Ace?"

The boy turned in shock to see Marco standing above him.

"Why are you crying?"

There were a few minutes of silence. Just when Marco resigned himself to the fact that Ace would probably never tell him what happened the boy spoke.

"I-I did something really bad," he confessed looking down at the ground.

Marco doubted that whatever Ace did that it was all that bad. He sighed and sat on the ground next to the kid. "I'm sure whatever you did wasn't _that_ bad."

"No. It was. What I did is unforgivable." He was sobbing now. "Everyone was right! I'm scum! I don't deserve to live."

Marco felt his heart stop. How could a kid say something like that? And what did he mean about everyone being right? He wanted to hit the kid to snap him out of his thoughts but thought better of it. He didn't actually want to hurt the little guy. But still it made him angry to hear Ace talk about his life that way.

"Don't say that!" he snapped. Ace's eyes widened. "I don't care what you think you did that was so unforgivable but don't you dare say that you don't deserve to live. Think about how bad that would make Luffy and Sabo feel."

Ace looked down again.

"Stop looking down and sit up!" Marco barked, he wasn't going to let the kid feel sorry for himself. He couldn't let the kid feel sorry for himself. Not when he had said that he didn't deserve to live. Ace snapped up, looking at the pirate. "Stop crying!" After a few minutes the kid was able to control his tears.

"Now, tell me what happened that was so unforgivable," Marco said in a quiet voice now that Ace had calmed down.

"I hurt Sabo. I-I didn't mean to. It just happened." Ace closed his eyes and Marco noticed that there were tears again. "He was my first friend. The first person to ever be nice to me and I hurt him."

"How did you hurt him?"

"I burned him," he said quietly.

Marco frowned. He knew that it wasn't a good idea to let the brats light fires. "How did you burn him? Did you push him into one of your fires?"

"No. I- um. You remember when we left the ship without telling anyone?"

How could he forget? The crew had been in an uproar trying to find the trio for hours. "Yes. That's why I followed you when I saw you run off by yourself."

"Well, Luffy found a devil fruit and he didn't want it because he said it would taste gross so he gave it to me instead."

Huh. He wasn't expecting that.

Good thing Luffy decided not to eat it.

"You ate a devil fruit?"

"Yes," Ace confirmed.

"You ate a devil fruit a couple of days ago on a whim?"

Ace nodded, but Marco wasn't paying attention to him. He was trying to work through the fact that a child had made a decision that would affect him for the rest of his life without truly understanding what it meant.

"You ate a devil fruit a couple of days ago on a whim, then burned your brother." The man shook his head. "Why did you burn him?"

"It was an accident. He was mad because I almost burned Luffy yesterday. He was yelling at me and I got mad. I didn't mean to."

The man nodded in understanding waiting patiently for him to finish.

"Sabo and Luffy told me that I should come talk to you because I'm having trouble controlling the fire. Luffy said you could help because you're a phoenix and you didn't tell anyone he's made outta rubber."

Marco smiled. He was wondering when it would come out that he knew. "So he finally told you that I know?"

"Yeah." Ace bit his lip. "C-can you help me? I don't wanna hurt anyone anymore."

The man studied him for a minute. Poor kid was hurting in a way that he shouldn't be. He was too young to know this type of pain. "You really shouldn't have eaten the fruit in the first place. You're too young to make decisions that will affect the rest of your life like that." Ace flinched at the harsh voice. "But there's no use getting mad about that. What's done is done. Until you learn to control you're ability you should probably stay with me in my cabin. There's always a slight chance that you might catch fire in your sleep. It won't matter if I get burned because I can heal myself."

Ace nodded.

"Come on. Let's get back to the ship. It's going to be dark soon and some of the look outs said that they saw a few ships coming towards us. If that's true there might be an attack tonight. We shouldn't be caught on the island by ourselves."

He waited until Ace was walking slightly in front of him so that he could keep an eye on him. As he watched the kid he realized that it was the first time he had seen him cry. He was really distressed about what happened.

When they made it back to the ship Marco steered Ace towards the boy's cabin to see his brothers. He knew that Ace wouldn't be able to calm down fully until he had seen his brothers and saw if Sabo was alright or not. He opened the door and didn't know if he was disappointed or not to see that the other boys weren't there. It was a big ship and if they weren't in the infirmary then it would take a while to find them.

Marco quickly led Ace towards the infirmary and was relieved when he opened the door and saw Sabo on a bed and Luffy sitting with Thatch. Ace stopped in the doorway and shifted his weight back and forth.

"Ace!" Luffy called happily running towards his brother before he stopped halfway across the room and scowled at the older boy. "What are you doing here? I'm mad at you."

"Luffy be nice," Sabo scolded quietly.

Marco pushed Ace forward and it was all the encouragement he needed to walk to his brother's bed. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Are you?" Sabo asked.

"I-I told Marco about my powers. He said he would help me."

"You told him?" Luffy asked cocking his head.

"Yeah." Marco watched as the tears started again. Ace really hated the thought that he had hurt his brother. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I am so so sorry. Please forgive me."

"Don't be stupid. Of course I forgive you," Sabo said. "I only said all that stuff because I was mad. I'm sorry too."

"I'm sorry Luffy for hurting your brother," Ace said to the little boy.

Luffy smiled. "I forgive you." He hugged Ace and the older boy returned it tightly. Luffy pulled back and looked up at his brother seriously. "Just don't do it again."

"I'll try not to."

Marco shook his head smiling as he walked over to Thatch's bed.

"What powers?" Thatch asked.

"Ace will tell you when he's ready to tell you."

At that moment Lyra walked out of her office and frowned when she saw two more people in her infirmary. "What are you all doing here? I didn't say anyone could visit. If you're not in a bed then get out!"

* * *

Luffy laid curled up on the lone bed in his and his brothers' room. He never noticed how big the room was but now that he was alone he couldn't help but think that it was too big.

Sabo had to stay with the doctor tonight and Ace was staying with Marco until he got his fire under control.

He was alone.

He bunched up the blankets next to him so that he could pretend that he wasn't but he knew that there was no one with him and it made him sad and scared because he was still having nightmares. They weren't as bad as they used to be but they were still there.

He pulled his hat to his chest and cuddled with it. His hat was always there for him and he knew that he could count on his hat. It reminded him of Shanks before he had to leave.

There was a loud boom before the sound of splintering wood filled the air.

"What was that?" he asked himself sitting up.

His door slammed open revealing Vista. "Luffy the ship is under attack. You need to stay here. Understand?"

He nodded. "Good. Someone will let you know when it's over."

"Kay."

It felt different than the last time they were attacked.

The door slammed shut leaving the little boy alone. There was a click and Luffy was pretty sure that someone had just locked the door.

He didn't know how long he sat there listening to cannons and guns going off, the clashing of swords, and the screams of men growing closer and closer. He covered his ears trying to block out the sounds of the loud gunshots. The noise was starting to hurt his ears.

BANG

He jumped as a gun went off right in front of his door.

This was really scary.

He wanted Ace and Sabo.

There were more gunshots and then a scream.

CRACK!

Luffy watched as the door splintered and cracked. A man that he had never seen before fell into his room.

There was blood running from his head and stomach. He turned and saw Luffy sitting on the bed.

"What the?" The man looked at him and then slowly aimed his gun.

Luffy did the only thing he could think of. He grabbed one of the pipes that was leaning against the wall and hit the man as hard as he could in the head. Repeatedly.

"You brat!" Another man was standing in the door way with a sword. He advanced towards Luffy, sword held threateningly in front of him.

Luffy looked at his pipe and knew that it would be cut in half.

He quickly took a defensive stance with his pipe held firmly in his hands. He wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"You gonna fight me kid?" The guy laughed before launching an attack.

The pipe Luffy had been holding was cut into pieces almost instantly. He dropped the rest of the pipe slowly backing up.

What should he do? He'd never fought someone this strong before. And the guy had a sword.

Swords hurt.

"HEY! GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Namur slid into the room grabbing the guy and throwing him out of the room. "You alright brat?"

Luffy nodded.

That had been really scary.

Namur looked at the broken door and then back to Luffy. "Come on Luffy. It's not safe here." He grabbed the little boy by the back of the shirt and lifted him into his arms. He turned Luffy's head so that he couldn't see anything and held it there so the boy wasn't able to look at anything.

"Namur! What the hell!?" he heard Marco yell.

"They got into the brats' room! One of them was attacking him."

"What?"

Namur let Luffy move his head enough so that the boy was now able to see Marco looking down at him with concern. "You alright kid?"

Luffy nodded again. "Where's Ace," he asked. He really wanted his big brother.

"He's in my room."

"LET ME GO YOU SON OF A-"

"Or not."

"ACE!" Several pirates cried and ran to save the boy that was being carried off by one of the opposing pirates.

"Who is that? Why does he have Ace?" Luffy asked panicked.

"Namur, get Luffy down to the infirmary. It should be safe there!" Marco commanded before running after the pirate carrying Ace.

Namur didn't waste a second and started running. He didn't get far before he stumbled. Luffy was able to see that someone had kicked the fishman in the back and was now trying to fight him using a sword. Namur dodged the blows keeping a tight hold on the boy in his arms but if he wanted to do anything he would actually have to put the kid down and fight.

Luffy was put on his feet and with a command of, "Stay there! Scream if anyone you don't recognize come towards you!" Namur turned to the man and started a vicious counter attack.

The small boy watched the fight in fascination. He had never actually seen a fight this bad before. All around him there were people lying on deck, some bleeding, others dead.

He didn't like this.

Luffy screamed as he felt an arm wrap around his neck and he was yanked of his feet and was now being held against someone's chest.

"Looks like you're my ticket outta here," he heard the man holding him say.

"What do you think you're doing?" Vista demanded glaring at the man that was now holding Luffy.

When had the swordsman gotten there?

"You're going to let me leave the ship peacefully otherwise I'm going to shoot this kid in the head."

Luffy was scared but he swallowed his fear. "LET ME GO!" he screamed for all he was worth. He kicked his legs wildly. The pirate grew angry and hit him with the butt of his gun. It didn't hurt but it was still annoying.

Vista's eyes grew colder and his grip tightened on his swords. "Put. The kid. Down," he said slowly.

"No I don't think I will. You won't attack me as long as he's in the way. I'll let him go as soon as I'm on my ship."

"Vista," Luffy cried out. He didn't like this guy. He wanted to be put down.

"Don't worry kid. He's not going to do anything to you. Not if he doesn't want to deal with Pops coming after him."

The pirates hold loosened a bit and Luffy was able to squeeze out of his hold. He landed on the deck with a dull thud. He didn't hesitate and jumped to his feet and ran towards the commander that was now charging the pirate he had just escaped. There was a loud bang and Luffy felt something hard hit him in the back.

He fell to the deck wondering why that had hurt and why he couldn't breathe suddenly. He was rubber it should hurt when he got hit.

* * *

Ace struggled against the man that was carrying him across the deck of the Moby Dick and towards one of the enemy ships. He had been sitting in Marco's room like he was told to do when five men burst into the room. They took one look at him and attacked. Ace was able to take out two of them before one grabbed him and started running. There had been talk about using him for leverage and like hell he was going to let them use him against the others. Ace could tell that the battle was now slowing down, based on the fact that the ones that had attacked the Moby Dick were now trying to flee.

He could see Pops- er- Captain Whitebeard watching as the men ran towards the boat. He hadn't seen the man that angry since that guy had tried to shoot Luffy a while back.

He could see various Whitebeard Pirates following after the man, all looking almost as angry as their captain. Ace wondered why they were so mad but pushed it out of his mind. He had to get out of the situation he was in.

He wasn't going to get on that ship.

Not caring about the consequences Ace let himself get angry and smiled when the fire he had been having trouble controlling came to the surface. The man holding him screamed in pain as he dropped him.

Ace hadn't been standing for more than a second when he was scooped up by a familiar blonde.

"Good job," Marco said running back towards the crew's quarters.

Ace smiled at the compliment and looked to the side and froze at what he saw. There was his baby brother being held hostage by some scum bag with a gun pointed at his head.

"Luffy!?"

Marco stopped running and turned just in time to see Luffy drop to the deck and start running. Not even a second later there was a gunshot and the small boy that Ace had come to love more than anything in the world drop to the deck. No scream. No cry. Nothing.

"LUFFY!" Ace fought his way out of Marco's arms and, ignoring anything but his brother, ran towards the tiny figure. "Luffy, don't be dead. Don't be dead." He pleaded.

He vaguely registered Vista swing his sword and a scream from the guy that had just shot his baby brother but he didn't really pay attention. He fell to his knees, afraid to touch Luffy.

He blinked in confusion. Why wasn't there any blood?

Had Luffy not been hit?

He put his hand on Luffy's back and could feel a small up and down movement signaling that the smaller boy was breathing.

"Luffy?" he asked quietly. "A-are you alright Lu?"

"Th-that hurt," Luffy wheezed out just loud enough for Ace to hear.

Luffy pushed himself up so that he was sitting on his knees.

"Hey don't move!"

Ace looked up to see Vista and Marco staring down at Luffy, eyes wide and- were they scared? He had never seen any of the crew scared before.

"That really hurt!" Luffy said loudly this time, angry that he had been hit.

"You're not dead," Ace said. He pulled Luffy into a tight hug for the second time that day. "You're not dead!" he repeated joyfully.

Ace had no idea what was going on but he wasn't going to complain. His little brother was alright.

"Luffy?" Marco got the boys attention, crouching so that he was eye level with them. "Where were you shot? We need to get you treated."

"I was shot?" Luffy asked eyes wide and frightened.

"You mean you didn't notice?" Vista questioned in disbelief.

"I thought I was just hit by something. Like when Grandpa hits me. It hurts then."

Vista and Marco traded looks at the statement but Ace wasn't paying any attention to them.

"You were shot but there's no hole in you," Ace said amazed. Checking his brother once again for holes that shouldn't be there.

"What's going on?" the deep voice of the captain caught the commanders' attention.

Marco stood and faced his captain. "Luffy was shot. Or at least we thought he was."

"Maybe the bullet bounced off," Ace said head cocked to the side talking to his brother. He didn't really care who knew about Luffy's powers or not. These men had protected them and saved their lives. They could be trusted. "You are rubber after all."

"Rubber?" Namur questioned. Had the fishman been there the entire time? "What do you mean he's rubber?"

"That's right," Marco said. "You don't get hurt when someone hits you, right? Maybe bullets bounce off you too."

"You knew!" Namur accused.

The older devil fruit user shrugged. "Of course I did."

"Quiet." The captain said joining them and kneeling downs so that he was closer to the two boys. "I am sorry you got caught up in the fight that was not yours. They were stronger than expected and had more men than we initially thought. Will you forgive us for letting you both get captured?"

"Yup," Luffy chirped.

Ace nodded, wondering why the man was apologizing. It's not like he had been the one that had done anything to them.

"Is it true you're made out of rubber?" the giant man asked looking curious.

"I ate the gum-gum fruit!" he informed excitedly.

The man smiled, turning his attention to Ace. "I suppose you ate a fruit as well. I saw what you did to those men."

"I wasn't going to just let them take me. Who would watch out for Luffy while Sabo's not feeling well?"

The man chuckled. "Marco take them to Lyra and make sure she checks them over thoroughly. We don't want our… guests to be wounded and for us to not know. The rest of you start doing a count. See how many of your brothers have fallen and who needs help."

They all nodded and followed their orders.

* * *

**About it hurting Luffy when he got shot. Bullets leave holes in people. I feel like Luffy isn't elastic enough yet for it to not hurt him at all. After he trains more he will get to the point where it won't bother him. Sorry if anyone doesn't agree with me but that is my reasoning.**

**Please let me know what you think :)  
**


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